Surprise Valentine's Day Marriage Proposal

Feb. 14, 2009— -- Fifteen months ago, best friends Rodney Cortes and JB Bolf decided to head over to Munich for Oktoberfest. They called a few of their close friends to come along, including JB's younger sister Stacy, and set their plans to travel overseas.

Little did Rodney or Stacy know they were about to connect with the love of each other's lives.

Cortes, 33, and Stacy Bolf, 30, were going to meet up at the Atlanta airport before the long flight. Cortes was coming from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., while Stacy Bolf was in Indianapolis, Ind. They called each other to make sure they knew where to meet. Cortes said from that first phone call he felt a spark.

Quickly the two realized their seats were next to each other.

"Rodney and I had a nice 9-hour flight together from Atlanta on over to Munich," said Stacy Bolf. "We didn't sleep an ounce on the plane. We were just gabbing the whole time. I kind of knew I was feeling a little something - but I was like man this is my brother's friend - this is kind of weird. I probably shouldn't do that."

"The timing of the flight started off with - they served us dinner after a few hours - the lights dimmed down of course," said Cortes. "They put the in-flight movies on - and throughout the whole dinner and the movies we were talking and just bonding and eventually several hours later they started serving breakfast and we realized we'd been talking for several hours. We both instantly felt a connection."

Throughout the trip both of their feelings grew, but while at Oktoberfest they tried to keep their feelings at bay. On the way home they intentionally sat next to one another and talked about if and how they could make a long-distance relationship work.

They parted ways at the Atlanta airport with the promise to call each other soon.

"I probably lasted about 10 minutes before I was already calling her from my seat on my plane," said Cortes.

But before the two went any further with their relationship, someone needed to talk to JB. He was after all Rodney's best friend and it was a rule of friendship Rodney didn't want to break without talking to him.