To celebrate the love in our community, we have a little promotion called The Jewelry Center’s Couple of the Month! Each month we award one lucky couple with a date-night on the town and a piece about them on our blog! Our July 2019 Couple of the Month is engaged couple Machaela and Marcus! Here’s a look at our interview with this wonderful couple.

How did you guys meet?

Marcus: My sister actually set us up on a blind-date. Machaela worked with my sister for a few months and I was single at the time.
Machaela: Yeah, his sister told me, “You know I think you should talk to my brother, I think you’ll like him.

Marcus: She’s texted me, and I didn’t text her back right away. So she probably didn’t think too highly of that but here we are!

And the first date?

Marcus: Oh god.

Machaela: This is always a fun one.

Marcus: Instead of doing a normal dinner and movie we had a spot down by the South Milwaukee Marina.

Machaela: It’s a small beach off the coast line. When he picked me up, he didn’t tell me where we were going. He just said we were going to do something a little different, a picnic and a fire.

Marcus: I’m a smoker unfortunately, and she always said she would never date a smoker. So when she saw me roll up first time, here I am with cigarette ash all over the car, she’s already nervous. But I picked her up and took it down to the marina. Unfortunately to get down there, you got to go down a steep – and I mean steep – hill through the woods. So the first impression she’s thinking is, “Unknown guy, taking me into the woods to who-knows-where, with cigarettes in the car.”

Machaela: And don’t forget the bags from Pick N’ Save in the backseat.

Marcus: So we get down there, and I’m not an outdoors guy. But we find the beach and I start hacking out firewood out of the woods in dress clothes and I’m sweating through the gills. But we built a successful fire and cooked some food, had a picnic, and talked for hours!

Machaela: His family says he never does stuff like that, would never build a fire. So I must have just been special!

Tell us about the proposal!

Marcus: We had been dating just shy of six years before I proposed, we lived together for quite some time. We’re both Harry Potter fans so we decided to go to Universal for that event and also to visit my dad down in Florida. I proposed at the light show at the castle.

Machaela: It was a lot of fun!

Was it a surprise for you, Machaela?

Machaela: I didn’t know until we got to Universal, and then his dad and him had to go to a different security line.

Marcus: We didn’t realize there was metal detectors to get in, and here I am standing with the ring.

Machaela: They go like seven lines down, and I’m thinking okay that’s a little weird. So that’s when I started to get suspicious. After that I would see a little box-shaped bulge in his pocket from time to time. And all all of a sudden we went on a ride,  and look at his pocket again the box shape was gone – and I think oh my gosh if that’s what I think it is I bet he just lost in on the ride. But luckily he just gave to his dad, his dad’s wife saw me looking at it and knew I was onto them.

Great story! Marcus, how did you decide on a ring?

Marcus: We were looking prior and had a few designs that she liked in mind. The jeweler actually called me when they noticed a certain type that she was starting to lean towards. I just wanted to make sure it was something she wanted.

Wedding plans! When’s the date? How is that going?

Marcus: It’s September 19th of 2020. We’ll be doing it at my mother’s actually, she’s got a huge plot of land so we don’t have to worry about any regulations. We’ll just do things how we want to do them in the backyard!

Machaela: His uncle is going to be marrying us, and are whole families will pretty much be in attendance. We’re making it very personal, it’ll be a lot of fun.

Any advice for newly-engaged couples planning a wedding?

Machaela: We’re not quite done planning ourselves yet, but one thing I would say is just don’t worry about making it too expensive. I’ve been on the online marketplace and have just been seeking out people reselling their wedding stuff. It is just so much cheaper. So far we’ve gotten all of our decorations from their and we’ve gotten some great deals. We’ve also started the planning early and getting as many things as we can get done now. Once all the little things are taken care of, it makes it a lot easier to focus on the big stuff.

Any honeymoon plans yet?

Marcus: Nothing yet! Still trying to get the wedding plans all sorted out.

Machaela: We do want to go somewhere where you can really treat ourselves, because we’re always so busy with work.

Well we hope you enjoy your date night! Thanks so much for coming in and sharing your story! 

Marcus: Thanks for picking us!

Machaela: Yes, thank you! We’re looking forward to our date-night!