Sheladae & Connor
SheladaeColasanti
&ConnorAskew
June222024
Middle Grove, NY
Our Story
How We Met
From Sheladae . . .
Our story starts with cheeseburgers and french fries . . .
We met at when we were both working at a local McDonald's (16 and 18). Funny story - we very much DID NOT like each other! I thought Connor was rude, and Connor thought I was bossy...... Hmm were our initial thoughts completely wrong?!
Anyways, fast forward a couple of years. I changed restaurants and ended up returning to the McDonald's he was working at. We were now 20 and 22. I think we both had the same thoughts on each other for quite some time. Our dynamic had changed a little - we had to learn how to work together in our positions. We began spending time in the same friend group and became great friends.
Fast forward another year or so . . .
We decided to give a relationship a shot. I was terrified! Terrified of dating my best friend. I was convinced something bad would happen so I tried to sabotage us often early on to save myself the heartbreak. For some reason, he didn't get scared and instead of giving up on my irrational self, he showed up for me every day.
We have grown a lot since those days (nearly 7 years ago . . . wow!). We've bought a house, supported each other through career changes, school, raising children together, and normal every day life. We are so excited to start our next chapter as husband and wife.
The Proposal
From Connor's point of view . . .
The Ring
The first place to start would be acquiring the ring. One thing I knew was a must when choosing a ring was that it NEEDED to be rose gold. Shel doesn’t like silver or gold. Another was that she didn’t want something too large. With this in mind I looked around online to find something that she would love. As I searched I was able to narrow the results down to a few options that were all in similar ranges. I finally made a decision because of something I knew she loved. Over the course of our relationship she has always watched “The Bachelor/Bachelorette” and they always use Neil Lane rings at the end. In the end I chose the rose gold Neil Lane diamond ring.
The Proposal
There were many different ideas when it came to the proposal but they never came to fruition. We decided at some point that we wanted to go on an adults only vacation out west to Utah, Colorado, & Arizona. We visited Arches National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Zion National Park, hot springs and many spots along the way......all in a camper van. I had to hide the ring from her the whole trip. I hid it in the bottom of my book bag, knowing she wouldn’t look in there. As we stopped off to take pictures I always kept my book bag close in case I found the right moment. I of course had no pre-planned time for this, it was always going to be when the moment was right. I eventually knew that doing it at the Grand Canyon would be the right place. As we stopped at different places other tourists would stop as well, ruining any chance at a secluded moment, but we pulled up to a spot and basically blocked it so no one else would park near us. We got out and looked off the cliff. I told her I would set up the camera and tripod so we could take some pictures. Little did she know I was grabbing the ring and setting my phone up to catch it on video. I waited for her to get annoyed that it was taking so long to the point she turned to see me on the ground popping the question. Shel thankfully gave the right answer. If she didn’t - the edge of the cliff wasn’t far away(sarcasm). She cried and shook, said yes, called her friends and family, all things that spouses do. A few days later we returned home engaged and now we (mostly her) are planning our wedding.