How He Asked | Tori + Corey

Tori and Corey’s engagement took place on a pilgrimage through the “City of Love,” within the beautiful Luxembourg Gardens. And so, after saying “yes” to God’s call to take a journey of faith, Tori and her new fiance returned with a ring and a wedding to plan.

In Tori’s Words: When Corey and I met, we knew pretty quickly we would enter into a beautiful, Christ-centered relationship. We were both Catholic, but finding someone single and Catholic was nearly impossible in our town. After a few months, as we met our families and started attending Mass together, we grew more and more serious. When Corey and I were called to go on a trip to France, I was excited about the wonderful people we would meet and the experiences we would have.

We made the decision to visit France in 2018 after we saw the opportunity to go as part of a pilgrimage through our parish. After attending an interest meeting, we knew we had to go. Six months later we were on a plane to France. Corey and I spent ten days in the French countryside travelling to landmarks and touring churches that we would never have known about otherwise.

The eleventh day of our pilgrimage is when it happened. That morning, Corey and I left early and walked down to a local pastry shop to grab a baguette and a delicious, flaky apple biscuit.  We went to the "Chappelle Notre-Dame de la Medaille Miraculeuse" (The Chapel of the Miraculous Medal) to attend Mass and get our replicas of the Miraculous Medal. The rest of the day was ours to choose whether to tour another church or around Paris.

Being the adventurous couple we are, we decided to walk around Paris since we were leaving early the next morning. We stopped for lunch in a cafe with the Leblanc's, Corey's family friends who lived across the street, and who wanted to give Corey a tour of Paris. I had no idea they were there for another reason.

After our lunch, we hopped on the metro system and found ourselves at the opera house with an orchestra on the street! Then we went to the Champs-Elysees, where we ate at one of the best macaron places in Paris--it was delicious. Finally, we made it to the Eiffel Tower and saw it live in all its glory.

As we were running around Paris trying to see all the attractions, I glanced at the time. It was about an hour before we needed to be back at the hotel for dinner, but we still had one more place Corey wanted to take us. We got on the metro again and headed towards the Luxembourg Gardens.

According to Corey, these are the "most beautiful gardens in Paris," and they sure are! We arrived and walked down a concrete path to the center where there are oak trees lining the path. This leads directly to an opening where a courtyard lies with a huge fountain and seating area. There were many people sitting and enjoying the beautiful weather.

We walked up a flight of stairs past the fountain and headed towards a gazebo. Unfortunately (or was it planned?) there was a band playing. Corey asked the Leblancs to take a picture of us with the beautiful scenery around us, and that's when it happened.

I don't remember exactly what he said because my adrenaline was through the roof, and I was crying. He was so nervous, too! The next thing I remember is Corey saying, "I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?"

Here's to the rest of our life together.