I Do!: Sheree Rawlins and Eugene Van Lith of Brentwood

Sheree Rawlins and Eugene Van Lith worked together at the Home Depot in Coram for a year before they started dating.

“One day they paired us to work on a project and we started making jokes and that was it,” Rawlins, 38, said. “I knew very early I wanted to marry him.”

Van Lith, 37, needed a little more time: “It took me a few years to make up my mind,” he said.

Then, his proposal was delayed due to the pandemic. “I first planned it out meticulously with all of her friends and family. Some were going to fly in, but it went wrong with the COVID lockdown,” Van Lith said.

There was a plan to propose at a restaurant, then that restaurant closed. Then he considered Central Park. He made plans in November 2020, Christmas 2020 and January 2021 — and then decided in April 2021 to just make it happen.

Van Lith told Rawlins they were meeting her mother’s friend, a photographer, to help him out by posing for some photos by the dock at Corey Beach in Blue Point, Rawlins said. “He had secretly arranged with my mom and sister to be there as well, in hiding,” she said. “As I was posing, Eugene was behind me on one knee.”

Said Van Lith, “It was a long process, but she still said yes.”

The hardest part, he said, was keeping the engagement ring hidden in his closet for six months. “She’d start to put clothes away and I’d say, ‘No, no, I’ll get it.’ She came close a couple of times.”

Rawlins said she was surprised by the proposal. “I didn’t know he was planning something — I wanted to stay home that day,” she said.

They were married on Sept. 15, 2023, at Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury, attended by two maids of honor, three bridesmaids and five groomsmen. There were 125 guests. “We had so much fun and danced all night long,” Rawlins said.

The couple, who live in Brentwood, have “hung up their aprons” since working together at the Home Depot. Rawlins now works for an HVAC company and Van Lith is service manager for a mobility equipment company.

“Life is fun,” he said.