Celebrating 10 Years of Marriage in Charleston, SC. Plus the proposal story. Plus running

Celebrating our 10th anniversary on Folly Beach, SC

Stephen and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in Charleston, SC (05/18-19/22)

– with lots of running and walking. We got to stay for two days. The first day, we walked and ran about 7 miles. The second, about 10 miles. There’s no better way to explore than by foot, we run pretty much everywhere we visit. Charleston is a favorite. Do you do this too?

Charleston is special to us. In 2011, Stephen proposed to me in front of the Pineapple Fountain one night, it was a gorgeous setting and unexpected. Taken by surprise, my initial answer was, “oh, no!” Then, “yes!” We sat at the fountain and called family to tell them the good news.

Proposal story, how it got started

[Pictures are from over the years]

Leading up to this, Stephen and I were with friends on a vacation. We referred to our group as the Wheeling Crew. – Wheeling, West Virginia. Everyone, but myself worked at a law firm there. We had some good times back-in-the-day around Wheeling.

One morning, we branched off from friends for the day. We even checked out of our hotel room that was near the Market. Stephen was lining things up, knowing that he was going to propose that day. He was nervous, but I never picked up on it because sometimes he’s awkward anyway… in a nerdy way. He had the ring in his pocket literally all day. How stressful is that?! His original plan was to propose on Isle of Palms beach. At the beach, we strolled around and soaked up it’s beauty, but lifeguards had everyone evacuate because a storm was approaching. The dark clouds rolled in and we made it back to our Mustang just in time for the rain.

In the Mustang, named Moxie, Stephen gave me an envelope that would tell me where we were going next. I opened it and read about reservations to Wentworth Mansion. “Mansion, mansion, mansion!” I exclaimed. I have never been inside of a mansion before, so I was looking forward to the experience. It didn’t disappoint. It used to belong to a family of 13 children! It’s an incredibly beautiful place. Original woodwork, doors that weighed more than me, floral pieces, and a cupola that overlooked the city.

Learn about the Wentworth Mansion here.

Greeted with hospitality and given a tour by a doorman, we checked in. We hung out at the mansion having wine and horderves until it was time to walk to dinner.

Dinner was at a fine dining restaurant, McCrady’s. My introduction to small portions and several courses. Amazing! It was a five diamond restaurant, I commented that I was impressed by the quality of Wentworth Mansion and now McCrady’s. “I don’t even own one diamond,” I said. Meanwhile, a ring of multiple diamonds was resting in Stephen’s pocket. Tempted to propose, he decided that proposing at a restaurant was too cliché and wasn’t private, so he waited, still with no idea of when he’d ask me to marry him. (Unfortunately, McCrady’s closed due to seating requirements caused by the pandemic.)

After dinner, we went on a walk, the sun was down. We strolled to the waterfront, near the pier. Stephen began to become sentimental and talked about life together as we looked at the water, and then began heading towards Pineapple Fountain. When we got to the fountain, as I said earlier, the surprise happened. Stephen got down on one knee and proposed. On the phone with our families, everyone was full of joy.

We met back up with our Wheeling Crew at Mac’s Place, an Irish pub, a few blocks away. Our friends were suspicious of our disappearing and figured that a proposal was coming. We threw darts, played older arcade games (Deer Hunter) and drank Guinness. We were terrible at throwing darts, not even because of the drinks. It was a great time.

That’s how it happened. We try to visit Charleston annually to celebrate our anniversary, but we’ve missed two, maybe three, years because of the pandemic and because we had a baby girl. Charleston was part of our honeymoon, as well. We cruised down to the Bahamas from there. We have created so many wonderful memories and stories at this one place.

Charleston is one of our favorite places to go run. By the way, a couple who runs together stays together! – I have proof of Stephen and I running 50 Milers together and not killing each other, lol! If you watch my YouTube video (video below), you will see parts of our usual route, hitting up main parts of the city. It’s about 5 miles. Wentworth Mansion, southern homes, churches, a park, the Battery Park, humongous historic mansions on the Battery (Battery Row), Rainbow Row, Waterfront Park, the Market, and King Street shops and restaurants.

Let me know if you’ve ran through Charleston! Man, it gets hot there, so plan on cooling down in one of the two fountains. There is also an ultramarathon that I may attempt some day, Charleston 100, because why not?! It seems really tough. Luckily, this event is in December. I’ve been to Charleston in December with my Mom, nice weather, not so hot.