WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!

This site has all the info you need to come celebrate with us for the weekend in Leonardtown, Maryland. Cheers to the future Garcia-Clarks!

Let's see how far we've come...

September 2019: Angela starts working as a musician at St. Mark's Epsicopal Chapel in Storrs, CT. Lauren, a student at the University of Connecticut, attends the student services each week to talk to the parishioners and to eat the home-cooked meals they bring each Sunday evening. She notices the cute style of the new musician, but is too nervous to say anything.

October 2019: Lauren and Angela start talking when Angela mentions that she likes the show "Steven Universe" and Lauren sends her a link to an illegal copy of the movie (shhhh!).

January 2020: Lauren and Angela sit in the church basement until 2 AM talking about their lives and interests. It turns out, they have a lot in common! Angela promises to be Lauren's "concert buddy," and they buy tickets months in advance to see one of their favorite bands, My Chemical Romance. Lauren thinks it would be awkward if she made a move now only for Angela to reject her and then have to go to a concert with her later, so Lauren vows to just remain friends, as much as she likes this new girl. 

February 2020: Angela and Lauren go on their first 'date' and watch Sonic the Hedgehog at the local movie theatre. Lauren is very excited when her favorite character shows up on screen, and Angela finds this cute. Later, Angela invites Lauren to her apartment to watch Midsommar, a horror movie. Lauren thinks Angela will sit with her and hug her during all of the scary parts, but Angela sits in the room's armchair for the whole movie. Lauren calls Angela over to the couch after the movie to watch an episode of a show, but really she just lays her head on Angela's shoulder and forgets about the world around her.

March 2020: Lauren and Angela hang out every other day... until the world stops for COVID-19. Lauren is forced to go home to Maryland while Angela must stay in Connecticut. They don't know when they'll be able to see each other again. With the way things are looking, it may not be for a while. Just two weeks of isolation, right? Then two more... and two more... at least they can watch Tiger King online together.

May 2020: Lauren turns 21! Angela comes to visit Lauren, taking care to isolate for weeks beforehand, wear gloves at all the rest stops, and NEVER take off her mask while traveling. After a night of laughing and making risotto, Lauren asks Angela to be her girlfriend. Angela accepts immediately. Lauren feels truly happy for the first time in a while. 

And thus begins a lifelong adventure for Lauren and Angela...

THE PROPOSAL

By Lauren

It all began when we went to see a production of Something Rotten at Toby's Dinner Theatre in Columbia, Maryland. Our community theatre had done the same production months prior, and Angela had one of the lead female roles, while I was in the ensemble. Our cast had all gotten together to see the dinner theatre production and jokingly compare to see who did the show better. However, I had something else on my mind as we sat in the crowded auditorium during intermission.

We were surrounded by all of our theatre friends. The show itself was a comedy, full of light, cheerful music and hard-hitting jokes. Everyone was alight with laughter. This would have been the perfect time to propose to Angela, if only I had a ring.

While Angela was distracted talking to someone else, I turned to Shawn Davidson, the president of the community theatre who had acted as the main antagonist of Shakespeare in our production. I quietly told him my predicament and he instantly got a soft, almost tearful look on his face. "If you want to do it, I'll take this ring off my hand right now and give it to you." I told him that I would prefer to use a forever ring, but I deeply appreciated the offer. He took one more look at me and said he would go discuss my problem with James, who had played the lead of Nick Bottom in the musical. 

And before I knew it, I was spending my nights sending ring ideas to Shawn and having secret meetings with James to plan a proposal. "I'm just going to a production meeting, they probably want me on one of the committees..." I would tell Angela. We quickly decided that a proposal at a 'cast party' for Something Rotten would be best. Angela would be surrounded by all the friends she's made in Southern Maryland, but she hopefully wouldn't feel pressured to say yes to anything she's uncomfortable with. Shawn agreed to make the food for the party, and James offered his house to host. I specifically told Shawn to avoid using fennel in the spaghetti and meatballs recipe, since Angela hates fennel. I'm no Romeo, but I wanted everything to be catered to what Angela would enjoy.  My parents wanted to get involved as well, offering to sponsor the party with as much liquor as we needed. I ordered a ruby (Angela's favorite color) ring from Amoroso, the same jewelry shop that my dad had used to get an engagement ring for my mom.

I couldn't have done any of this without James and Shawn giving up their time and energy to help me, and my parents supporting me all the way. If you're reading this, remember that I'll always look up to you guys as my theatre mom and dad and my actual mom and dad.

I created a secret group chat with all of the Something Rotten cast to tell them about my plan. Those who could attend were happy to help, and I got about 20 different offers of people wanting to film the occasion.  And thus, the plan was set in motion. After Angela went to callbacks for a production of Into the Woods (which she got the lead role of The Witch for), we would go straight to James' house for the cast party. 

We spent the first half hour or so mingling upstairs and trying the wonderful food Shawn had prepared, but I was a bit too nervous to eat much. At one point, Shawn dragged me aside to see the ring, which I had mailed to his house so Angela wouldn't find it. But shortly, he told me it was time to move things downstairs, and we all gathered to await my proposal. Well, actually, Angela got stuck talking to someone upstairs for a few minutes, so we had to wait for her to come down first. She eventually made her way downstairs and sat next to me at a small table.

I stood up and called Angela to the center of the room. Everyone around fell quiet instantly, and Angela stood up with a suspicious look on her face. "You know, I have been getting a lot of targeted ads lately..." she said. Damn it! Google had tracked my searched for engagement rings and kept recommending jewelry services when I tried showing Angela videos on YouTube. Nevertheless, I took a deep breath and began my speech. I told Angela everything I loved about her, about my hopes for the future, about my favorite times that we've shared. I felt that notecards would distract me too much, so I had spent weeks going over my speech over and over again in preparation for this moment. I told her that I wanted to be with her through the good, bad, and everything in between. I got down on one knee and pulled out the ring box that I had been holding shakily in my hand. Angela, through tears, nodded and held out her hands for me to put the ring on. She was so overwhelmed she couldn't remember which hand the ring was supposed to go on. I slipped it on her left ring finger and brought her into a warm embrace.

God, I love her.

Lauren's Favorite Pictures of Angela

That last picture? That was the picture Angela took while giving Lauren her contact info (see Our Story above)!

Angela's Favorite Pictures of Lauren

Our Favorite Pictures Together