Reuben and Ari met leading worship together at Crossroads Community Church in March of 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. The shutdown allowed Reuben’s work life and Ari’s school schedule to free up just enough for Ari to rejoin the worship team and Reuben to take on leadership oppotunities at the church and they formed a sweet friendship. Months later this friendship turned into a date night in Oakbrook followed by a year and a half long relationship before Reuben proposed.

Reuben Garza proposed to Ariana Diaz on her 25th birthday. It was a sunny halloween afternoon. Ari’s friends and family had just enjoyed a fun Sunday morning church service and an hour of whirlyball to celebrate Ari’s birthday. Ari’s mom kept telling her to leave with Reuben back to her house because Ari’s grandmother was supposedly there waiting to greet her. Ari was confused as to why she had to be the first to leave whirlyball to get home to see her grandma when the rest of the family seemed to want to stay and hang out. The couple left anyways and on their way home Reuben told Ari he began to feel sick and anxious and needed to take a small walk to relax a little. Ari agreed but wanted to wait in the car during Reubens walk because she didnt have good walking shoes (keep in mind this was halloween so she was dressed as a cowboy) Ari knew Reuben wasnt feeling well and thought perhaps his blood sugar was low so she was feeding Reuben marshmallows all the way up until Reuben got out of the car to take his walk. Ari begrudgingly agreed to take a walk with Reuben to make sure he didn’t pass out. They walked for a couple minutes before Ari noticed Reuben smirking and quietly laughing to himself so she asked him if he was feeling better. And he took a moment, there on the Prairie Path near her home where they had taken many many walks prior, to ask Ari to marry him. And of course she said yes! Later on, the house was full of their friends and family who were all waiting to greet them and celebrate their new engagement! Ari found out later that Reuben had announced to the pastors and staff at church the week prior that he was proposing that Sunday. So like, EVERYONE knew excpet for Ari, which he had told earlier that month that he was not planning on proposing soon because Ari getting a new job and a new car was a lot to process in a short period of time. Long story short, no one ruined his plan and Ari was surprised!