With matters of the heart, the foundation and beginning of love are very important in understanding the direction of your future. As we share with you today a beautiful wedding and love story we hope it warms your heart as well as it did ours. Today we give you William and Ashley. This story is being told from Ashley's perspective. She stated, "William and I met during the fall of 2002 in the halls of Hoover High School. We became somewhat friends, but I honestly didn't know much about him other than he had long hair, a big blue car, a girlfriend, and everyone loved him. About a month before my senior prom, I was walking towards the school bus and I saw Will in passing and he had on the new Black and White Air Jordan XII.
I said, "Ooooh those are nice! Will, you wanna buy me some Jordans?"
"Naw, but do you want to go to the Prom with me?" he replied." lol
"Sure!", I said.
"Cool!", he said as he kept course towards the school bus.
I had planned to go alone, but why not go with a good friend. Leading up to Prom, Will and I started hanging out more, we even went to watch the school play, The Diary of Anne Frank for extra credit. Will says that this was our first official date.
Will and I kept in contact via Facebook throughout college as I went to school in Albany, NY and he studied in Tuscaloosa, AL. We didn't get to see each other often, but every summer we found someway to celebrate our birthdays together (Mine is July 6th and his is the 7th). He would come to my gatherings, dinners, and even take me out to dinner and a movie if I had no plans. I always thought it was SO SWEET and he was always such a gentleman, but never realized that he really liked me.
In July of 2012 I traveled to a friend's wedding in Punta Cana Dominican Republic. During that time I turned my phone off so I missed all of the birthday wishes from friends on Facebook. On the morning of the 7th I was able to log on a friends iPad and the first message I saw was one from Will. "All I know is my friend Ashley Crenshaw better wish me a happy birthday before it's over." I quickly replied and promised him that we would talk upon my return.
That conversation turned into a 4 months of talking every other day and making plans to get together over Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving Will treated me to a wonderful day in Tuscaloosa, AL at the Iron Bowl. ROLL TIDE!! I loved every minute of it. HE was such a gentleman and it was so romantic. I thought to myself... "Hey I kinda like this guy."
My gut told me that Will was the guy for me. Our friendship was so natural and I felt he was the guy that I had been praying for. Even though he was living in Houston while I was in ATL, I felt that God's plan was for us to grow together despite the distance. After a full year of long distance dating, I finished graduate school and I decided to look for job opportunities in Houston, TX.
PROPOSAL
Friday Nov. 21st was a long day for me. I knew Will and I had a date night scheduled to see Mockingjay at Studio Movie Grill, but I really just wanted to chill. I decided to have a glass of wine to revive myself and after I actually felt a little like dancing! (**magic wine ;-)**). Our plan was to go to the movie, eat, and find somewhere to go dance. The movie theater is located in a shopping plaza called CityCenter that is very similar to Atlantic Station in ATL. We spend a lot of time in the area at the Gym, happy hours, and dinners (We LOVE it!). After the movie Will asked if I wanted to go for a walk. I thought it was a little surprising in that HE NEVER wants to go for walks!! We walked down to the courtyard area and it seemed like the place was ours and no one was watching. We danced while I sang whatever song popped up in my head for about 30 minutes. The sky was clear and for a moment I thought..."I'm tired, I wanna lay down on this grass." Will didn't think that was a good idea and directed me to sit on a little ledge to the side. Will sat down next to me and proceeded to grab my hand. He asked about this rhinestone owl ring I was wearing...
"What is this? I'm just gonna take this and move it over here" (to my other hand).
"Why are you taking my ring?!" I responded.
Will slid down onto his knee, pulled a little black box out of his pocket and said "Because you need to put this one on....." He opened the box with a light shining down on this beautiful ring and said
"Will you Marry me?!"
Shocked and teary eyed, I was SPEECHLESS....
"You're supposed to say something... Ashley Nicole Crenshaw will you spend the rest of your life with me?”
I said “Yes”