Obviously, they met through Catholic Match. Rob attempted to chat with
Erika, who was online but had the site minimized. She later realized
that she had been contacted by Rob, so she checked out his profile and
emailed him to apologize. He later sent another chat invitation, to
which she accepted.
When the two finally connected live online,
Erika's first words were, “You rang?” Three days of chatting through
the website ensued, along with approval from Laurie, one of Erika's
coworkers who just happens to be one of Rob's classmates at Catholic
University. Rob asked for Erika's phone number, and asked her out on a
date for Saturday night. They first spoke to each other over the phone
on Friday night, and immediately clicked. The next evening, Rob picked
Erika up and they went to Flat Top Grill in Ballston, and later, at a
loss for what else to do, they went to see the monuments on the
National Mall.
On anniversary of their first date, Rob and Erika
decided somewhat of a re-creation of that amazing evening. Instead of
FlatTop, Rob upped the ante and took Erika to Aquarelle at the
Watergate. Dinner was fabulous - especially because they saw
Condoleezza Rice and Karen Hughes come in!!! If nothing else, that
would've made the night! After that, they went to the monuments on the
National Mall, visiting the same monuments they had exactly a year
before, and adding a few new/different ones.
Erika had always
jokingly commented that there were several perfect opportunities for
Rob to kiss her on the first date while they were on the Mall, but he
never took advantage of any of them. Rob was determined to do it right
this time. They had made it to the end of the walk, save for the
Washington Monument, which was still under renovation, as it had been
the year before. Rob still hadn't kissed Erika. He said there had been
too many tourists around this year, unlike the last time--not that he
took advantage last year! :).
When they made it to the
construction fence by the Washington Monument, Rob then said that he
would finally kiss her, but before doing so, he wanted to “one up” it
and said he had something to give Erika. He reached into the breast
pocket of his coat and pulled out a small dark blue box. Erika's
response was something along the lines of "oh, crap!" and was
immediately stunned when Rob opened the box, displaying a beautiful
Asscher diamond in a platinum setting. He asked her if she would marry
him, to which she replied, “yes,” and began to hyperventilate and cry.
Rob had always said that their first anniversary would be a perfect
opportunity to propose, but Erika really didn't think he would do it -
he is still in law school and she figured he would wait until he
graduated or was very close, so the proposal was completely unexpected.
She half wondered, but didn't think it would happen.
Their wedding date is February 25, 2006, and the ceremony and reception will be held in Washington, D.C.
