We are getting married!!

I moved to Asheville over 6 years ago, not knowing that fate had major plans for me. This wasn’t my home as I had only visited once before on vacation. I’ve always loved the outdoors but looking back now, that isn’t why Asheville called my name. As the story goes, “he met a girl”! This wasn’t just any girl though! Chelsea and I went on a hike for our first date. Kudos to her for meeting a stranger in the woods for a first date but then again, our communication leading up to this was just different; special! This wasn’t just any hike come to find out. It’s 3.5 miles to the top of what we still feel to this day is one of the more vertically strenuous hikes in the area. We didn’t notice on that day though. We talked and talked like we had known each other well before that moment. We simply just had chemistry together! We still don’t understand how we managed to do the hike and talk so much. I had intentionally found a hiking spot that offered great views when we were deciding on a location but the main goal was for it to be a longer hike so I could spend time with Chelsea. I was so excited to meet her/be with her from the conversations we had leading up to this. Even though the hike was 7 miles round trip, this was not long enough for me. We simply breezed through it with our dog’s leashes in hand. I left there that day figuring out how to plan another date if I could be so lucky. As the story goes, “he met a girl”! This wasn’t just any girl though. This is the woman I would take back 5 years later to the same hike we first met at to ask her to marry me. The hike this time around was different. As I’m trying to “play it cool” and not let on what I was planning to do at the top (she knew), we were both huffing and puffing on the hike this go around trying to maintain our breath. We were laughing it off and reminiscing on how we talked so much that first time; how the hike felt like a breeze compared to this go around. However, this was good for me as the moments between conversation this time allowed for me to kept running through how I was going to ask and what I wanted to say. As we were reaching the pinnacle and the views, the moment had come. My mind was racing. Where do I set up the camera? How do I play this off until the last possible minute? What do I want the background to be? The easy part was asking her! Chelsea is my best friend, and I’d had known for quite some time that I couldn’t live without her. She kept true to herself during the proposal, interrupting me before I could even get through the how and what I had been drilling as we hiked up with an astounding, “Are you serious?”. I simply reply, “let me finish damnit!”. She said, YES! Asheville wasn’t my home over 6 years ago, but now I have my home. My home will always be where she is!

Once upon a time….two people didn’t swipe right but ended up together anyway. Roughly six years ago Cody and I did not match on a dating site but he ended up adding me on Snapchat. On a long car ride I decided to find out who this random “Cody” was in my friends on Snapchat. We hit it off well enough that I gave him my number to chat. A few days later he asked me to go on a hike with him, which I agreed to not thinking much of it being from Bryson City. In the middle of my drive to the hiking spot, I thought to myself “if he kills me and buried my body no one will know where I am.” Luckily, he wasn’t a serial killer. In fact, on a hike up Pinnacle Peak, we never stopped talking, and we didn’t even realize how miserable the hike actually was/is. Three years later, we decided to hike it again for our anniversary. That time we laughed at ourselves for how miserable the hike is, and appreciated our love story even more. Five years later, we hiked it again. This time I knew it would be more special than the first. I tried to keep it a secret that I had accidentally signed for my engagement ring when it was delivered. (To be fair, he did call in a panic asking if I had signed for something and if the box had a label on it). It felt like a century from the day I signed the box to the day he proposed. At every “special” moment I had butterflies thinking that would be it. When he asked me to hike Pinnacle Peak for our fifth anniversary, I knew that was it. ❤️ I tried on WAY too many hiking outfits and put on mascara, which he noticed quickly, and immediately questioned. When we painstakingly made it to the top, and I was wondering if the climb was worth it, he set up his go pro “for photos,” which he has never done before. I was beyond nervous. I thought “this is it.” He got down on one knee and had the best speech. I didn’t even let him finish before I cursed a whole bunch and said yes, but per the norm for us, he told me “to let him finish damn it” and fully asked me to marry him. I clearly said no. March 19, 2022, the best day with my best friend until October 22, 2023. ❤️