Alana Smith of Coventry, Rhode Island and Joe Dolle of Valley Stream, New York are set to wed at Lakeview Pavilion on March 27, 2020.
How We Met
Joe and I met through a friend in 2008. We remained friends for over a year and slowly started to grow closer. His family was having a sweet sixteen for his sister, I was invited as his date and we hit it off from there. I traveled from RI to NY weekly, and then he would travel to me. Long distance became hard, so three months into our relationship, we took a leap of faith and moved in together. We have been living together ever since. We settled down in NY for some time, went to school and saved for our first home. In 2016, we finally had enough saved to purchase our first home and decided to officially settle in RI.
Our Proposal Story
Joe and I have never been on a true vacation together — we had traveled by car for the weekend many times, but finally decided to plan a trip to the Dominican Republic. Joe surprised me and planned an entire proposal. When we arrived at our resort, he had asked me to get dressed so we could go grab some dinner. We walked hand in hand on the beach towards the restaurant, and I noticed a large heart dug out in the sand with a candlelit dinner in the center of it. Joe got down one one knee and, after ten long years together, asked me to marry him. He had roses and Champagne and had hired a photographer to capture the moment.
