There are many ways to pop the question
Romantic gestures come in many forms, whether it’s making history for an East Butler restaurant or surprising a fiancée and a horror TV show star at the same time.
Nicole and Brandon Geibel set a precedent when they got engaged at Anna Marie’s Winery in East Butler on Nov. 1, 2019.
The former Nicole Shining said she knew something was up when Brandon asked her if she wanted to go out to dinner.
“I knew something was up, because he never likes to go out to eat,” she said. Then when she suggested one local restaurant, he countered with how about something fancier, like the place I took you to on your birthday, Anna Marie’s Winery, which Nicole counts as one of their favorite places.
Apparently this got her psychic senses tingling because Nicole said, “Later on when I got home, I sent my sister a text saying I have a feeling Brandon's going to propose to me. She told me not to put too much thought into it in case it didn't happen.”
“We get to the restaurant, we sit down, and my husband got the waitress’s attention and said, ‘Excuse me can you please take our picture?’
“I turned over to him and I said, ‘Aren't you going to smile?’ He then pulled out a ring box and said ‘Will you marry me?’” she said.
She said that because both she and Brandon are shy and don’t like a lot of attention, she was shocked that he actually asked for her hand in front of a bunch of strangers.
“I was so nervous and excited that I couldn't even get the words out. I said yes under my breath, to which the guy sitting next to us said, ‘Are you going to answer yet?’ So then I had to say it louder. The whole room clapped and said congratulations,“ she said.
Nicole added that before they left, the waitress pulled them aside and asked if the restaurant could have a picture for its website because no one had ever gotten engaged there before.
“We are now happily married and have a handsome son,” she said.
For the then-Megan Erickson and her boyfriend Ben Rosenberger, the 2017 trip to the HorrorHound convention in Cincinnati stemmed from their mutual love of the TV show “The Walking Dead.”
She said he’s always been a big fan of the show, more even than she is. “But I started watching it, and by season four, I got sucked in. We watched it every week religiously,” Megan said.
“On March 17, 2017, we were at the HorrorHound convention in Cincinnati. It’s a convention where the theme is horror movies, and you meet actors and authors,” Megan said.
Actor Jeffery Dean Morgan, who portrayed the character Negan on “The Walklng Dead,” was appearing at the convention, and Ben had paid to have a professional photograph of the two of them taken with the actor.
She said Ben had it planned to pop the question, but she was totally taken unaware.
“He brought the ring. We waited in line, and when it was our turn, we went behind a curtain,” she said.
“We walked in to take the picture. We said, ‘Hi, how are you doing?’ I turned around and he was on one knee. Jeffery Dean Morgan said, ‘You’ve got to be (kidding) me,’” she said.
“After I said ‘yes,’ Morgan said, ‘You are a bad-ass (dude),’” she said. “His reaction was so genuine. He was a nice guy. He had the photographer take an additional photograph,” she said.
She said they went back the next day to get the actor’s autograph. She said Morgan looked tired. He had flown to the convention the day before from Europe.
She offered him half the pizza she had with her and said he seemed to appreciate that.
They reached out to a friend on the convention circuit to get an invitation to their April 9, 2019, wedding to the actor but never heard if he received it.
“We’re still together. We’re still happy. He’s my best friend and we still go to a lot of conventions, like the Living Dead Weekend in Monroeville,” said Megan, who lives with her husband and three children in Butler Township.
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