our love story

December 14, 2019 - A random Saturday.

Howie and his friend Scott planned to go over to the Cohen's to install an outdoor light. Katie thought Scott's wife Lisa was coming over to hang out while they worked and then they were all going for lunch. Little did Katie know that, yes Lisa was coming to hang out, but also to serve as a distraction. Katie decided she wanted to build gingerbread houses and got kits for them, so she even aided in her own distraction without having a clue.

Howie and Scott went over to the Cohens and Katie and Lisa made their gingerbread houses and killed time by putting together the Christmas flower box for Howie's condo. This might be the one time they hung out and DIDN'T try to figure out what was taking Howie so long to propose.

When the boys finally returned, they made some small talk about the gingerbread houses and the flower box, and then Howie started going through his mail, which he had "grabbed" on his way in the door. He got to a silver envelope and said to Katie "Hey, we got a holiday card."

Katie grabbed the card, still none the wiser, and said "This isn't a holiday card, it's a wedding invite." At this point, Katie is more confused than anything. The only person she knew getting married was her friend Loren, and Loren had JUST put a save the date on her desk that past Thursday. Katie read off the return address, that had no name on it, and asked the room if they knew who that was. Everyone said no (it is Scott's parents' address...wait to keep a straight face guys). At that point Katie opens the envelope and can tell just from the inside that is definitely a wedding invite, which she exclaims to the room.

At this point Katie doesn't notice both Scott and Lisa have taken out their phones and started to film her. Katie pulls out the invite and goes right down to the names to figure out whose wedding they have been invited to (after the FIVE they had already attended that year). That's when she saw Howard Cohen to Kathryn Steel. SURPRISE.

After taking in the names, Katie looks up at Howie, a dumbfounded look on her face, and sees that he is standing there holding a ring box. She proceeds to burst into nervous laughter combined with misty eyes (mostly laughter). Howie gets down on one knee and opens the ring box, which happens to have a light in it so the box opens with BLING. He just kneels there for a few seconds, not saying anything, while Katie keeps giggling. Eventually he whispers, "will you marry me?" To which Katie nods/giggles and gets out an almost audible "yes!"

They hug and kiss...and eventually Scott has to tell Howie to put the ring on Katie's finger!

Take a look at the full invitation, complete with an RSVP card, in the photos.