How We Met
In the early 2010s, friends kept placing us in the same rooms at the same parties. We shared a close mutual friend, and though our paths crossed often, it wasn’t until the end of 2013, on our first friends’ trip outside of Canada to Cancún, that we truly saw each other. It was the kind of trip you never forget with lazy sun-soaked days, laughter and dancing-filled nights, and, without meaning to, we found ourselves spending nearly every moment together.
Back home, unwilling to let the connection fade, we kept the momentum going with an end-of-summer rave and from that moment, something clicked. Just three months later, Rikky said I love you, and Manpreet soon after. What followed was a decade-long love story: beautiful, complicated, and real. Cultural and religious differences made the path anything but linear, and life asked us to grow, individually and together. But through it all, we never let go. And in 2023, we decided: it was finally time.
The Proposal:
What was meant to be a quiet escape after a friend’s wedding turned into something magical. Rikky had planned a surprise getaway to Tofino on Vancouver Island, home to breathtaking coastlines, misty forests, and a dreamy treehouse resort straight out of a fairytale. I thought we were simply indulging in some much-needed R&R; little did I know he had other plans.
On our second day, after biking along the beach and taking in the beauty of the town, we returned to get ready for dinner, only to discover we had nearly burned down the magic-tree house resort. In true city-kid fashion, we’d left our suitcases under the room’s heat vents, not realizing they were, in fact, heaters. My dress for dinner was now a charred relic but Rikky insisted it was the dress. So, with a slightly toasted outfit layered under a stylish coat, off we went.
Almost missing dinner entirely, it was coursed and slow, and somewhere between the second and third plates, Rikky suggested a walk. I didn’t question it, it made sense to stretch our legs on the beautiful beach with the ocean just steps away. On the trail, I casually pointed to a woman with a camera and joked that we should ask her to take a photo. When I turned around, there he was, on one knee. The speech he’d spent all day composing during our bike ride disappeared from his mind, and all we could do was laugh. A decade in the making, it was a moment so perfectly us: by the ocean, hilarious, and filled with the kind of love that has endured.
