During the cold Parisian spring of 2021, I was scrolling through a dating app when I spotted a tall, dark and handsome Frenchman who had a cat and rode motorcycles.

Sounds like my kind of guy.

Antoine and I had our first date in the Parc de Saint Cloud. All restaurants and indoor attractions remained closed due to the pandemic, so strolling through a park was really the only way to date. When we said goodbye, I thought to myself, “I think I just met my husband.”

I was right.

We spoke in French the whole time. I thought he was being nice and letting me practice my French. It wasn’t until our second date that I realized, he didn’t speak English! But he learned.

We took our first trip together to Belgium in November. At the top of the bell tower in Bruges, we exchanged our first “I love you’s.”

Antoine spent a year sharing France with me; a bike ride in Versailles, a tour of the stables at École Militaire, a croissant class, and endless tastings of wine and cheese. He also made sure to create a little bit of America in France. We made fried pickles and sweet potato fries, watched Friends, and listened to country music.

In September of last year, it was my turn to share America with my Frenchman. I was determined to make a good impression!

We attended a USC football game, ate fresh seafood in Charleston, tasted wine in North Carolina, and enjoyed time with my family on Lake Murray. Antoine went dove hunting, rode motorcycles, and survived Walmart.

I returned to South Carolina for Christmas without Antoine. I cried the whole way to the airport. Even though we would only be apart for three weeks (and I suspected an engagement would be coming soon), saying goodbye was just the worst. I was surprised to see that he wasn’t upset.

I would soon find out why.

On the evening of December 22nd, my dad called me to come outside and help him with something on the dock. When I got there, he, placed his phone in my hands, turned me so that I was facing the lake and said, “don’t turn around.”

Then, I knew.

On his phone was a video Antoine had prerecorded. His first words, “surprise, Emily!” Then he said many things, special things that I’ll keep just for me. At the end of the video he said that he wanted to spend his life with me and he presented a box. Just as he began to open it, he snapped it shut and said, “turn around.”

I turned around to find my boyfriend who I truly believed to be in France, on one knee with a diamond ring in his hand. He asked me to marry him and I said, “oui.”

We were married legally in a small ceremony in France on February 11, 2023 and are so excited to celebrate in South Carolina this summer!