Great minds! When University of Texas senior Tori Monaco and her girlfriend, Berkley Cade, first met online just over a year ago, they knew they had found something special in each other.
“We are each other’s first same-sex relationship, so we were blown away by our ability to connect with each other immediately and find the happiness we had been looking for,” Monaco told BuzzFeed News.
It didn’t take long for both women to start thinking in terms of forever, but the only issue was that both wanted to be the one to pop the question—and to keep their plans a surprise.
Cade began doing a little ring research with Monaco’s best friend last fall, and she happened upon the perfect ring last September. Monaco, on the other hand, found the perfect bauble in January.
Monaco told Mashable that she wanted to be the one to propose because Cade “never gets spoiled or gets to the be the center of attention.”
Now all the two women needed was the right timing. But first, a plot twist: Unbeknownst to each other, both Cade and Monaco had let Cade’s mom Kristy in on their secret proposal plans. And Kristy, for her part, was excited at the prospect of being able to surprise them both, so she suggested that it would be a great idea to pop the question while they were visiting Cade’s family in Washington.
Fast-forward to this past Saturday, when the lovebirds and Cade’s family were gathered in the living room to play Pictionary. An unsuspecting Cade was instructed to draw something resembling a proposal, and when she finally etched out what looked like two stick figures mid-proposal, Monaco surprised her love by dropping down on one knee with the ring.
A visibly startled Cade reached into her own purse and pulled out her ring for Monaco, and the pair just about dissolved into tears as they pulled it together enough to slip their respective rings on each other’s fingers.
“My heart was pounding. I had knots in my stomach the whole week leading up to it,” Monaco told Mashable. “I almost broke and proposed early so many times.”
“I was laughing at the crazy coincidence,” she continued, “And just so unbelievably shocked that something so perfect was happening to me.”