Boo, I Think I’m Being Ghosted

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Have you ever been ghosted or ghosted someone else? It is the practice of suddenly cutting off all communication with another person without explanation, often someone you have been dating.

Being ghosted often leaves you confused and without closure. This groom says his bride ghosted him before their first date. Fortunately, they survived to laugh about it.

Bride: Nakisha Procope, Consultant to Duke Energy and Co-owners of Six Twelve Global, LLC, native of Pontiac, MI

Groom: Andre Procope, iCloud Engineer and Co-owners of Six Twelve Global, LLC, native of Charlotte, NC

Current Residence: Lancaster, SC

Wedding Date: November 21, 2021

Venue: Grand Bohemian Hotel, Bohemian Garden – Charlotte, North Carolina

How They Met

Andre: We met in 2018 on a dating app called Bumble. This site requires the woman to reach out first. Kisha sent me a message that said, “Hi.” I took it from there. Shortly after, we exchanged phone numbers and talked daily. After about three months of talking and texting, she ghosted me.

Nakisha: At the time, my job was demanding. Although we work in different fields, Andre was able to help with a few projects that I was working on. We could never align our schedules to meet between my work and Andre traveling for his job. The conversations grew fewer and further between. I received a text from Andre informing me that he’d noticed that I ghosted him one day. At some point, we followed each other on social media but didn’t interact. He later told me that he stayed tuned into my Instagram stories. A year after I “ghosted him,” he noticed that I was single again, slid into my DMs, and asked me out.

Their First Date

Andre: I planned to take Kisha on a scavenger hunt in uptown Charlotte that I’ had found online. It started at the North End of uptown and ended at the Mint Museum. Afterward, I planned to take her to Halcyon Flavors of the Earth restaurant. She commented on how she was impressed with the date I had planned. But it rained that day, so I called her with plan B, dinner, and an open mic night. We went to Haberdish in Noda. We ended up shutting the restaurant down, not realizing that we had sat talking for an hour after they closed.

Nakisha: Andre slid in my DMs on Instagram after I posted stories while on a solo trip to New York. We had never interacted on social media, and honestly, I’d forgotten that we were even following each other. He asked me on a date, and I was impressed with his date idea, so I said yes.

His profile stated that he was 6’10,” but I didn’t believe it. I’m 6’0”, and most guys I’d meet would add a few extra inches to their height, so I assumed that Andre had done the same. When we met for the first time, the first thing I said to myself was, “Okay, 6’10, I see you!” He was laid-back, and we fell into easy conversation like we had been knowing each other for years.

I admit that I’m not the best driver. I had hit something in my truck and knocked a piece of the bumper off. I tried to avoid having him walk me to my truck, but being the gentleman that he is, there was no getting around it. He made mention of the bumper; we talked for a few minutes more and left. The next morning, he sent me a text saying he had located the part online and offered to order it and put it on for me. He has not been able to get rid of me since.

We talked every day after that. A week after our first date, he came to my job to take me to lunch. He gave me a card that read, “Happy Weekiversary.” So, he had made himself my boyfriend and assumed the feeling was mutual. It was.

This is “The One”

Andre: I have never laughed as much in life as I have since I’ve been with Kisha. She genuinely makes me happy.

The Proposal

Nakisha: I was tired of being indoors due to the pandemic, so I planned an outdoor picnic with three of our friends to celebrate our second year of dating anniversary. Andre said that he had made other plans for our celebration, so, we dropped the kids off and headed to our suite in Uptown Charlotte for the weekend. Later, I found out that his parents had flown in from DC to participate in the festivities. We almost ran into them at Target the day of the proposal. They saw me and texted Andre that they were in the same store. Andre quickly got me to check out and out of the store before I saw them.

We got dressed in color-coordinated outfits (He knows that I live for a “twinsie”). He blindfolded me and told me he was taking me somewhere I hadn’t been for dinner. We soon arrived at the Ballantyne Hotel. We had talked about having dinner there about a month before and hadn’t made it happen, so I was happy. He had a private dining room reserved for us. When I walked in, his parents and my family were all there. I have a son and daughter, and he has three sons. Each of the five kids held signs that read, “Kisha, Will You Marry Me?”. I turned around, and he was on his knee. My best friends from home were in on it and were on FaceTime for the proposal. He said that I never officially said yes; I just cried at him and took the ring. I am hard to surprise because I always find out, but they got me!

Andre: In January 2021, I knew that I wanted to propose on our second anniversary. The first people that I told were her two best friends, Tasha and Toya. Then I told my mom and asked for her help with ideas to make it happen. Around April, I started planning and purchasing the ring. I sent pictures to each of our moms and her best friends to get the thumbs up on my choice. I knew that I wanted our kids to be a part of it. I went back and forth with when I would ask her to marry me, before, during, or after dinner. I decided to do it at the beginning of dinner, and it was perfect. She never saw it coming.

Wedding Planning

Nakisha: We had a trip already planned to Las Vegas a few weeks after we got engaged. We knew from the beginning that we wanted a small wedding, so we found a chapel that held about 50 people in Vegas, reserved the venue and started planning the wedding. It was going to be in June 2022.

We had an engagement party at our home in July 2021 that was absolutely beautiful and so much fun. So much so that we decided to get married at our home in April of 2022. Then, we changed our minds again and found a small venue in Beaumont, NC. The only available date was in Feb 2022, so we took that date and began planning. It soon became overwhelming and costly, so we decided to do a midnight wedding in a wooded retreat in November 2021. We lost that venue on October 31, 2021.

I was so tired of wedding planning that I was just ready to go to the courthouse. I knew that Andre wanted a wedding so that his parents could be there. Since he’s an only child, I wanted to do something. We decided to plan our wedding for November 21, 2021, three weeks away!

The Wedding

Nakisha: It was perfect. The temperature that November day happened to be 65 degrees, which worked out perfectly for an outdoor wedding. We invited about 30 of our closest friends and family. If there were any hiccups, I wasn’t made aware of them. We had a dinner reception at Aria Tuscan Grill in Charlotte. Each guest pre-paid for their meals. We made a champagne toast and cut our cake. Afterward, the two of us went to the Epicenter, still dressed in our wedding attire, to eat pancakes and French toast at the Red Eye Diner. Leading up to the wedding, the two of us had been completing a health and fitness challenge, so we had been looking forward to cheating together on our wedding day.

Memorable Moments

Andre: The thing that stood out for me was the two of us laughing during the vows. We genuinely enjoy each other’s company, and no matter where we are, it’s like there’s just the two of us in the room. I can’t remember what we were laughing about.

Nakisha: I remember walking down the aisle and seeing Andre and our children. We are a blended family with five children, and seeing them and both sets of our parents left me feeling so at peace and loved. It was something about seeing the visual of our new family all together at that moment that stuck with me.

Their Honeymoon

We went to Dubai. We wanted a true “local” experience, so we stayed in a city about 20 miles outside of Dubai called Sharjah. We visited locally owned stores, ate ‘street food’ and explored the city by bicycle and walking. We spent time on a private beach and enjoyed time together. The second week, we relocated to a hotel in downtown Dubai. We visited the Dubai Mall, which is a must-do. We went indoor skiing, rode camels on the safari, and enjoyed shows and massages.

Advice to Others

Don’t stress about the wedding; focus on the honeymoon. The wedding goes by so quickly. The honeymoon is when you and your spouse get to enjoy time together and soak in your new union. We’d do a courthouse wedding and have a month-long honeymoon if we could do it again.

Note: Are you recently engaged, married, celebrating an anniversary, or renewing your vows (one year or less) and would like to share your story? Click here to begin.