When Steve and I first started dating, he had to go out of town very unexpectedly for some family matters.  The two of us were right in the middle of those blissful, early stages of getting to know each other and the idea of being apart – even for just a few days – was so hard.

It was late May by this time and the air was perfectly warm and summer was just around the corner.  We weren’t “officially” a couple yet…so having distance between us added a slightly dramatic turn that neither of us was anticipating.  We were eight hours apart…and couldn’t really talk on the phone.  After three weeks of spending nearly every day together…it felt like a shock to the system.

That is, until I was walking down the street a few days later, headed to my apartment.  Walking towards me was this devastatingly handsome man with the cutest grin on his face!  Having arrived home much earlier than anticipated…Steve grabbed my hand on the sidewalk…gave me a kiss…and asked if I would go out for dinner with him that night!

He whisked me off to the most amazing night…and that place officially became our restaurant…and we officially became a couple!  We try to go back at least once a year…it helps us to mark the time and the amazing moments in what has become a ten year marriage.

And those things matter.  Those places matter.  Those memories matter.  They become part of the bricks that built a foundation and it’s a beautiful thing to go back and remember them.

This past weekend, we walked through the doors of Play Food & Wine on a blustery winter day!  We walked through the doors that Ashley and Andrew have walked through countless times before that.  And we walked through them so that we could mark another moment in their own relationship; in a place that they love…in a place that they remember…and in a place that they’ll return to time and time again.

Having your table at a favourite restaurant might seem like a small thing…but when it comes to love…the small things are the big things…and the big things are what hold us together!

And of course, no winter engagement is complete without a little frolicking in the snow!