When Vienna moved to Canada from the US in May 2013, she and her family were temporarily living with her Nana. For context, her Nana lived within walking distance to a liquor store called the Guildford Station.

Vienna was 20 years old, and since she was of legal age, the first thing she wanted to do was buy alcohol for the very first time (yes, this was her first priority as a Day 1 Canadian).

Side Note...

Prior to walking over to the Guildford Station, she had just got her driver’s license changed over from US to Canadian, so she was carrying around this yellow sheet of paper (that was and is not accepted as a formal piece of legal ID).

Continued...

Upon walking over to the Guildford Station and spending what felt like hours trying to figure out what she wanted to buy, Vienna ultimately settled for a single can of Palm Bay (and for those of you that don’t know what that is, the company describes it as a sophisticated vodka cooler with the essence of tropical paradise). She walked up to the pay counter to notice a remarkably attractive and exceedingly tall young man.

At first, he gave her a hard time about having insufficient government ID, but he also had this smirk and beautiful smile that made her feel confident enough that she was going to win this battle. Even after the transaction was completed, they continued to exchange flirty banter back and forth. He introduced himself as Ian.

As she was exiting the store and walking home, it was at this moment that she was determined to get him to ask her out.

And so, determined and always eager for a challenge, Vienna walked to the Guildford Station and bought a single can of Palm Bay. Every day. For 5 weeks. Waiting for something magical to happen...

But it never did.

It was time she took matters into her own hands.

It was her mother and her aunt that drove her to the Guildford Station this time. They knew her plan and waited for her in the getaway car.

Vienna walked into the store, and noticed that Ian was re-stocking one of the refrigerators. As normal, she grabbed a single can of Palm Bay and made her purchase at the pay counter. She took her receipt, wrote her phone number on the back of it, folded it up, and proceeded to walk over to Ian. Keep in mind that it was a Friday evening, so the liquor store was extremely busy and all the customers were staring at Vienna as she made this endless walk towards her future husband. It seems everybody in the store noticed her except Ian at this point.

Trying not to let her anxiety show, she went to slide the folded piece of paper into his jacket pocket, but oh no... for some reason it wasn’t going in... and he's noticed her now. Panic immediately set in.

She thought maybe she had to dig deeper, so she was standing there like a fool, pushing and poking his abdomen wondering why he’s wearing a hoodie that has fake pockets- until she realized he did have pockets. They were just zipped all the way up.

As Ian watched her struggle for a few seconds more, he revealed that famous smirk, and miraculously unzipped his jacket pocket.

Vienna tossed the folded piece of paper in there and ran out of the store to hop in the getaway vehicle. She was 99.9% sure that she was never going to step in that liquor store nor buy a single can of Palm Bay ever again.

But after 3 long hours... he messaged her.

And on September 23, 2013... he asked her to be his girlfriend.

And 10 years later on August 26, 2023... he proposed to her.

After a story like this, we would normally say “The End”, but truthfully... its only just "The Beginning".

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