Just one margarita...

Written by Brian, edited by Kerry

Kerry and I met at the Standard Biergarten, in the Meatpacking District right by the start of the High Line. For those of you who have never gone to the High Line, I recommend it highly, and you can go check out the scene of the crime. The Biergarten is a fun, German-theme bar that is both trendy and reasonably chilled out. Representative of Kerry and Brian. And the Whitney just opened, so crime and culture can be accomplished in one trip. 

Anyway on the day we met, I was having dinner with some friends at Dos Caminos, which has notoriously good but strong margaritas. When my friends went for round two I abstained, preferring to stick to just one margarita given the birthday party we were headed to next. And it was a good thing I did or I might have been able to impress Kerry with my irresistible charm (footnote needed).

Kerry and I were at the same birthday party of a friend of our respective roommates. Kerry was wearing a bandana, that’s what I remember. She’ll tell you it was a scarf, but this is my rendition so we’re going with bandana. We talked and it was going fine but Kerry and Laura went off on their own and I settled back in with the friends I’d come with. 

Later, I went looking for that girl in the bandana and found her and Laura seated at a bench in the middle of the bar. This is the point of the story where Laura was a true champion and excused herself leaving me to chat up Kerry. Laura you rock – everyone when you meet Laura at the wedding, offer to buy her a drink. We wouldn't be here without her. 

We chatted about this and that, mostly our mutual dislike of Facebook (I’ve still never joined!) and Kerry’s preference for phone calls rather than texts. I tried to explain garden leave to Kerry and why I wasn’t working for 30 days yet still getting paid. We went our separate ways but thankfully found each other on the way out.

The next day I texted Kerry to tell her I was going to be in Hawaii for a week and would call her when I got back. Our first date was at a fondue restaurant in the East Village called (ironically) the Heartbreak Café.

The Proposal

I proposed to Kerry while we were vacationing in South Africa. We built the trip around my friend Ed’s wedding to his lovely wife Olivia. We were down in Stellenbosch, which is a famous wine region in South Africa and having a very lovely time. In fact, we had a little too much fun during the wedding and Kerry was in very bad shape on Sunday morning. So being the gentleman that I am, I packed all of Kerry’s things to ensure that we would meet our required check out time while letting her enjoy so extra sleep and a warm bath to boost her spirits. 

We went for brunch at the lovely Thelema Mountain Vineyards and a little wine and some food solved all of Kerry’s woes. We then proceeded on to POD, our boutique hotel in Camps Bay. After checking in we took a quick tour of Table Mountain before settling in to watch the sunset with a bottle of wine from our balcony. Little did Kerry know what was coming next. 

I procured the ring from my hiding spot and after fumbling through my practiced lines I got down on one knee and asked Kerry to be my bride. After her initial shock, she recovered and said yes!