A Love Story
Our Story
How Spencer Dixon & Alison Buchsbaum became the Roseworths
Alison & Spencer
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We met at Nick's.
Alison. We've talked about this.
Okay, take two. I had just moved to Portland and encountered a cute dog walking down my street. The owner and I realized that we both go to a small island near Acadia and were going to be there the next weekend. When I told my uncle about the connection, he looked up Nick in the paper phone book, and Nick invited us over for appetizers.
I was also invited to Nick's. I thought I knew everyone on this tiny island so I was shocked to see a beautiful woman I didn't recognize. Seeing her playing with Nick's dog, I decided to go back to my house and return with my 10-week old puppy Lupin. It worked. She was obsessed with him the whole night. The next day we took Lupin for a walk. It went really well but I learned she had a boyfriend.
That relationship ended soon after (for other reasons). Spencer and I had a brief romance, but I wasn't quite ready, so instead we became friends.
I waited patiently. Every time I went to Boston for work, I made sure to see if Alison was free. Then one of our friend-dates started to feel like a real date.
Spencer invited himself on my trip to Puerto Rico, and that's when we became official!
Then I moved to Portland to be closer to you that winter, getting an apartment right next door. One week later, you bought a house and moved to the town next door 🫠
It was only 13 minutes away! And then you moved in with me a couple of months later.
Fair enough. We had a few awesome trips that year: El Salvador with my sister's family in February
And visiting Alison's relatives in Switzerland that summer. Our future home if things keep going downhill here.
Oh Spencer. And then you abandoned me and Lupin for a year for furniture school.
So grateful for you letting me live out that dream! I drove home every weekend while my classmates kept working. Now our home is a gallery, and we can make whatever we want! That's also when Lupin finally accepted you as his dog mom, you're welcome.
Spencer had his open house and graduated.
We then had a crazy summer full of Cranberry and another Europe trip, this time to Scandinavia. We loved finding beautiful places to draw the scenery together.
We transitioned back to South Portland for the school year and I finished setting up my woodshop in our basement.
Remember how buying the table saw sparked a conversation about the future of our relationship?
Yeah, I wanted to make sure we were serious enough I wouldn't have to move the 600 lb table saw ever again.
Let's fast forward to the proposal!
We had planned to visit my sister's family in El Salvador for the holidays and somehow convinced Alison's family to join. I turned wooden rings for both of us and built a small ring box. Alison was fishing to see if an engagement was coming - I did my best to have a poker face but reassure her not to stress.
I didn't mean to fish! I wanted it to happen and was worried I would be disappointed if it didn't, so I wanted you to know why I was anxious.
Yeah, sure.
I did get my nails done, hoping it was subtle. Apparently, it was not. Spencer is very observant.
Anyway, I had a whole plan for a romantic hike just the two of us up the Santa Ana Volcano. Unfortunately, in El Salvador, hiking in national parks requires a tour guide. The best I could do (thanks to my sister's connections) was a 14-person hike with an English speaking guide. I asked him to take a video of the proposal.
I was suspicious he was going to propose, given that he told me we were going for a hike and my brother, an avid hiker, was not invited.
I was nervous the whole way up, rehearsing my speech in my head. When we got to the crater, our guide Pablo brought us over to a "special photo spot." His winks were not subtle, but fortunately Alison didn't notice.
I was ready to take off my backpack, but as soon as we got to our destination, Spencer got down on one knee. He said a lot of sweet things, none of which I actually registered at the time. He then shouted "she said yes" when I finally remembered to respond.
That's because 150 Salvadorians were watching the proposal! Our tour group was in on it too, blocking off the other hikers.
And that's the story! We hiked down the volcano and shared the good news with both of our families.
I also made a video of me turning the rings and the moment she said yes — if you want to see how it all came together:
Here is a picture of all of us from that trip
