- Michelle and Scott first meant in a Fb assist group for widowed folks of their space
- The 2 struck up a quick friendship that led to romance
- The newlyweds inform PEOPLE what it was prefer to see a double rainbow seem on the day of their wedding ceremony
Two folks searching for love after heartbreak discovered one another. As they fell in love and bought married, there was a particular signal from above that theirs was a fateful union.
Scott and Michelle first bought to know one another as two widowed folks.
“I grew up a navy brat and bought into development administration, so I moved round so much all through my life. I used to be married beforehand to Lisa, my spouse of 29 years,” Scott tells PEOPLE. “We have been in Northern Virginia, the place I began working a job with the federal authorities. I’ve three youngsters and two canines.”
“I used to be born and raised in Fairfax, Virginia. In 1999, I bought married to Jonathan, and we have been married for about 23 years,” Michelle shares. “We lived in a foreign country for 10 of these years earlier than shifting again to the Fairfax space. I’ve 4 kids and 6 canines.”
The 2 first linked in a Fb group for widows within the Washington, D.C./Maryland/Virginia space. After taking a more in-depth take a look at Michelle’s profile, Scott realized that his sister was a mutual good friend.
“He reached out to me and stated, ‘You do not know me, however I seen your mutual buddies to my sister,’ and that is sort of how the dialog began,” she says. “What’s fascinating is his sister and I by no means met. We went forwards and backwards and danced round one another in Northern Virginia for years.
By no means miss a narrative — join PEOPLE’s free every day e-newsletter to remain up-to-date on one of the best of what PEOPLE has to supply, from superstar information to driving human curiosity tales.
“Her son and my nephew have been buddies for some time, additionally,” Scott says. “It is a small world sort of factor.”
Michelle and Scott grew to become good buddies quick.
“We had so many commonalities in the best way of background and future objectives. It was simply superb and I believe that is what launched us fairly quick,” she says.
“For me, it was greater than that,” he provides. “It was Michelle’s humorousness and her sense of life. And it simply actually attracted me, which I discovered after a short while.”
Michelle helped Scott with cooking and ended up spending increasingly more time with him. He was joyful to return the favor when she got down to make a DIY busy board for her toddler grandson.
“We have been engaged on that mission collectively and the dialog got here up about whether or not we would ever get married once more,” Michelle recollects. “And I stated, ‘No, I believe I am pleased with the best way issues are.’ ”
“We chuckle about it now, as a result of that was rather less than 5 months earlier than she accepted my proposal,” Scott says, noting he himself did not even know that is the place the connection was headed on the time.
“She would inform me issues she needed to do and I did not need her to assume I used to be shining her on, however they have been the precise objectives I had,” he says. “Her plans simply appealed to me vastly.”
Issues had began taking a flip for the romantic when Scott determined to go for it with a particular Valentine’s Day present.
“I really gave it loads of thought. I stated, ‘I actually like her, I believe I will ship her two dozen roses.’ By the point I bought finished with the dialogue with myself, I ended up sending her 100 roses for Valentine’s Day,” he recollects.
“Once I bought 100 roses delivered to me at work, I used to be in shock,” Michelle provides. “I stated, ‘I’ve bought to present this man an opportunity. That is a fairly cool transfer.’ “
Months into their relationship, Scott knew he needed to suggest and determined her job, the place Michelle is surrounded by “so many good buddies which might be nearly like household,” was the proper place.
“I ended up proposing on the dock on the college the place she labored and her boss was in cahoots with it, as was her mom, they usually all helped me and set it up and orchestrated it,” Scott says.
The 2 have been overjoyed, not simply to search out love with one another, however to convey their households collectively.
“We’re so grateful for the very fact each of our youngsters have been so supportive. They’re really those who needed us to have a marriage,” Michelle says.
“They needed to be concerned and see us get married. His daughter, Jill, is a part-time wedding ceremony planner, so she helped there,” Michelle continues. “My daughter, Alyssa, works at a florist, so she helped there. It was simply an enormous household affair. The ring bearers have been our grandsons and his granddaughter and my niece have been the flower women. My three boys walked me down the aisle.”
The 2 thought their outside ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 7 can be derailed by a wet morning, however 10 minutes earlier than they bought began, the solar got here out.
“Because the ceremony was occurring. It went from darkish to mild and the trace of drizzle went away. The wind died down. Then nearly proper after the ceremony, the primary rainbow appeared as [photographer] Chelsea began taking photos,” Scott says.
“After which as the photographs continued, a second rainbow appeared. I do not know that Michelle and I even seen it till Chelsea stated one thing we rotated. And there, it was proper behind us. We simply sat and stared at it for a couple of minutes. And it was the brightest boldest rainbow we would ever seen. It was superb and it it was so large and we might see nearly see the entire thing. Yeah. And it was only a good affirmation.”
Michelle agrees, including, “We actually really feel like God led us right here and introduced us collectively. The rainbows nearly appeared to be a affirmation of that.”
The 2 have been much more stunned when Chelsea shared video from the day on TikTok, the place it went viral as folks commented on the importance of the double rainbow in Michelle and Scott’s story.
“It’s onerous for to have hope after you lose somebody that issues are going to get higher or that you will meet another person when you want to do this,” Michelle says. “So it was very nice to have the ability to give such hope to different widows. I wasn’t anticipating that, however I am actually glad that that it did do this.”
“We hope this may be one thing optimistic for everybody,” Scott says. “I actually did not count on this. I dreaded going out and assembly folks after so lengthy. I used to be sort of set in my methods. However together with her humorousness and her persona, I simply love spending each minute together with her.”
Michelle provides, “It is good to share our relationship with everybody else. We have had feedback that stated, ‘I did not consider in an afterlife till I noticed this,’ and that is actually particular to me personally.”