When we started to brainstorm on how to write 'our story,' we thought it would be so special to share both of our perspectives of key moments in our relationship. So we decided on a few moments, and wrote out our individual sides of the story. Once we were done, we compared notes & it was so cool to see how much they lined up. It's long, but we think it's worth the read! (:

It was finals week at LSU, just a couple weeks before Christmas, and the last thing on my mind was finding a boyfriend. I was focused on school & studying, so Monica (my sister), Gracie (her dog) and I headed to LSU’s Library (Middleton Library). We were sitting in cubicles studying, and after a while, two guys showed up together, but there weren’t anymore seats next to each other, so one sat in front of me and the other sat behind Monica. I didn’t think anything of it until the guy sitting behind Monica (Jacob) got up and walked past me quite a few times to talk to his friend! After a while, Monica and I decided to take a quick study break to take Gracie on a walk, and as we were walking out, Jacob popped up and stopped me, mumbling something like, “I just wanted you to have this before you left,” and handed me a little piece of paper with his name and number on it. It was the sweetest thing, but I don’t think he was expecting us to come back after our walk and study next to them for a few more hours, haha! He was so cute and such a gentleman that even though I wasn’t looking for a relationship at the time, I texted him later just to say how much I appreciated it.

It was finals week of Fall Semester in 2016. The library was where I always ended up to study. I would find a cube on the 3rd floor, put my headphones in, and study for hours. Well on this day, I was meeting a friend, Peyton Cortez, to study for our exam together. He told me to meet him at the cubbies by the window on the 3rd floor. By the time I got there, the 2 cubbies closest to him (directly behind him) were occupied by three girls. Guess who?? Theresa… Monica… and… don’t forget… Gracie!! I had to walk by Theresa every time I needed to “get notes’ from my friend Peyton. The third time walking over to him I remember saying, “Peyton have you seen this girl behind you? She is beautiful. Should I give her my number?” At that moment, she had me. You can kiss studying goodbye. So I went back to my desk, came up with a game plan, listened to some pump up music and went in for the kill. I chickened out. And Peyton laughed. So I head back to my cube to regroup. Another hour passed of running the scenario through my head of how this is all going to go down (don’t forget I’m supposed to be studying). Before I could give it another try, she started packing up her stuff to leave. I remember thinking, alright this is my last chance. As she was walking by, I built up the courage to grab her arm and stop her. I introduced myself, said something cheesy and gave her my number. It didn’t go as I had planned in my head. Not even close. And to top it off, she wasn’t leaving. She was taking a break and coming right back. She walked back by and studied for another 2 hours right in front of me. I waited anxiously all day for a text from her. That night, I received a text that read, “I am so flattered, that was so sweet what you said at the library, but I’m so sorry, I just got out of a relationship, so I'm not looking for anything right now”. There was more to it but I remember thinking, dang, I’ve never been let down so nicely before. I knew I liked this girl.

Flash forward about a month, and we were back at school after Christmas. I was walking to class one morning, and all of the sudden, I heard someone call out my name to tell me hi! I turned around, and there was a tall dark and handsome guy with a huge smile on his face…. The only problem was, I had no idea who he was! But I played it off like I did and said hi, only to try and figure out who he was for the rest of the day! Luckily for me, Jacob still had my number, so later that day, he texted me saying it was great to see me & if I was free in a couple of weeks, he would love for me to be his date for his fraternity’s event ‘Convivium,’ a weekend-long event in New Orleans. After giving it some thought & consulting all of my girlfriends, I decided to go for it & say yes!

A full month had passed and everyone was back at school after the Christmas break. Spring semester had just begun. I was leaving my morning class and walking across the street to my car when I saw Theresa crossing from the opposite direction. I stopped her in the middle of the street to say hi. She gave me the biggest smile like she was excited to see me and we kept walking our separate directions. I thought about her all day. My formal was in 2 weeks and I still hadn’t asked anyone to be my date. So that same night I decided to give it another shot and texted Theresa to see if she would like to go with me. She still had my number saved as ‘Jacob from the Library,’ but she said she would love to go and I was one happy man.

Since we didn’t know each other, Jacob and I decided we should probably go on at least one date before being stuck together for a whole weekend! So the week before Convivium, we went to bingo and trivia night at Barcadia, and had a blast together. Needless to say, we also had an amazing time together that weekend at Convivium. We instantly connected, and I started to fall for him when he started to tell me about his big, sweet family. I ended the weekend by telling him, ‘I better see you again soon,’ and obviously, I did! After that weekend, the rest is history!

I asked Theresa out on a date before my formal to break the ice a little bit and get to know each other before spending a full weekend together. My idea of a first date was trivia night at Barcadia lol. I sucked at Trivia. But so did she. We spent the night laughing and getting to know each other. We hit it off. I was so interested in this girl. After Barcadia, I was so excited for the weekend ahead. The next day, my roommate Jefferson, his girlfriend Alayna and I picked up Theresa and headed to New Orleans. The first night we had an amazing time. She got to meet all my friends, we danced, and we shared our first kiss. I could tell she liked me back. The next day, we spent the day holding hands in the French Quarter. This was not like me at all. She had me blushing all weekend long. She was so genuine, sweet, fun to be around, and the way she talked about her family really caught my eye. I didn’t want the weekend to end. Saturday night was the night of the formal dinner and event. The guys wear tuxes and the girls wear dresses. She looked stunning. We were at the restaurant when someone asked us to tell the story of how we met and Peyton gladly stole the show because he saw it first hand. He told the story from his perspective and it had everyone laughing. My friends liked her. I liked her. This night was off to another great start. We ended the night at the piano bar and had an absolute blast. When it was time to leave Sunday, I had a pretty good feeling about this girl. She rested her head on my shoulder the whole car ride home. When we dropped her off we both weren’t ready for it to end. As I hugged her goodbye she said, “I better see you again soon.”

A few months went by, and Jacob finally asked me to officially be his girlfriend. Not long after that, though, our semester of school ended, and it was time for us to go our separate ways for the summer, knowing that this distance might make or break us. We were silly to worry about this though, because a couple weeks later I was already visiting Jacob in Rockwall, and he asked me to go on the GL family vacation in St. Thomas later that summer. Even though I had only met his family a couple times at this point, and Jacob and I had only known each other for a few months, going on a week long vacation with them didn’t scare me one bit. So in July 2017, we all headed down to St. Thomas! It was an amazing week getting to know all of the GL’s more, and for Jacob and me to grow stronger in our relationship. Every night, Jacob and I would take walks on the beach, and we would usually find ourselves staying up late to sit and talk at the far end of the beach. On the last night of the vacation, we had a big dinner with the whole family & some friends, and had a blast, but at the end of the night, I noticed Jacob was being a little bit quiet, like he was deep in thought.. We went on our usual beach walk after dinner, and down in ‘our spot’ he poured out his heart to me & told me he loved me for the first time. I knew I was completely in love with him too, so of course I said it right back, and from that moment on, I knew that what we had was something so special.

We have this rule in my family where you can’t bring your significant other on our family vacation unless you are engaged or married. Two months before the trip, my dad, brother and I were at dinner, and my dad completely threw the rule out of the window. He said, “So Jacob, do you want to invite Theresa on our family trip this summer?” Keep in mind Theresa and I had only officially been dating for a few weeks. I replied, “What about the rule?” He said, “Who cares about the rule, I’ve never seen you act this way towards a girl before, you have my permission to ask her.” I think my dad knew something I didn’t know because that trip changed my life forever. Theresa fit like a glove with the family. We had the best time together that trip. The last night of the vacation, we decided to walk down the beach to end the trip the right way. We found a cool little spot in the corner of the beach and sat down. I felt like the luckiest man in the world. We talked about everything. How we met, the first few dates, our goals, our faith, our families, our future together, how much we had changed since entering each others’ lives - everything leading up to that point. I was in love and I wanted her know. That was the night I told her I loved her... It was so special.

Two amazing years of dating went by, and Jacob and I just grew stronger in our relationship. We grew in our faith together, ran half marathons together, went camping and hiking together, and so much more. He was there for me through all the ups and downs, and I fell more in love with his big heart, his enthusiasm to grow in his faith, his desire to become the best person he could be, and the way he pushed me to do the same. All of these things made it so easy to see myself spending the rest of my life with him – I knew I was ready to marry him. We definitely talked about this, and knew we were on the same page, but I had no idea when the actual proposal might be coming (he passed up a few great moments to keep me guessing)! I finished up my second-to-last year of school, and another GL family vacation to St. Thomas was planned for the summer of 2019. The possibility that he might propose on this trip was in the back of my mind, but after a few perfect opportunities passed, I figured there was no way. Halfway through the trip, it was his dad, Ed’s birthday, and we all went out on the boat for the day, but had to get back early to get ready for ‘Ed’s birthday party.’ I didn’t suspect a thing. Shockingly, I was the last one to finish getting ready, and the whole family went to wait at the beach bar for the party to start. After a quick dance party, Jacob and I walked down, just before the party was set to start, and he asked me if I wanted to go on a quick beach walk before the party, and I said sure, still suspecting nothing.. Until we were about halfway down the beach and I saw a beautiful setup in ‘our spot’ and just about lost it! We made it to there and he again poured out his heart, ending it with, “This is the spot I told you I loved you for the first time, and this is the spot I’m asking you to be my wife.” It was easily one of the most magical moments of my life! We took pictures and then joined everyone on the beach for a birthday bash/ engagement party!

I bought the ring the first week of January 2019 because I couldn’t take it anymore. I knew I wanted to marry Theresa for so long now, and I was ready to ask her to spend the rest of her life with me. That weekend, I planned a trip to stay with Theresa and her family in New Orleans with the sole purpose of asking Mr. LaForge permission to marry his daughter. But it’s hard to find a moment alone with a father of 8, let me tell you. So I visited him at work on my way home Monday morning. That went well. He didn’t kill me. Now it was time to plan the proposal. I remember wanting to ask her as soon as possible and I thought about every potential weekend. We had several trips planned in the next 6 months. We had a trip to New York in February, Easter weekend in New Orleans, half marathon in San Diego in April, and St.Thomas trip in June. I had an awesome plan for every one of those weekends - ask in the snow in the middle of Central Park, NY, ask Easter weekend at the end of our 10 mile run in Audubon Park with family and friends waiting, ask in San Diego race weekend after all the hard work we put in, and last but not least St Thomas in the spot I first told her I loved her. As each trip grew closer and closer, they didn’t sound as good as the St Thomas idea, but I refused to hold on to the ring for that long. I brought the ring with me everywhere not knowing if I was going to ask or not, until I finally decided I was going to do it in St Thomas and take my time on the planning. I spent 2 months creating the perfect moment in my head, and called up a friend in St Thomas to help me coordinate the night. We organized a band to play on the beach, we invited all of our island friends, we lined up flowers, photographer, champagne, food, everything was covered - I was ready to pop the question.

To make sure I surprised her, I decided to do it mid-week, on my Dad’s birthday. I even planned a hiking trip to St. John for just the two of us the day before to make her think if I were to ask, it would have been then. The plan worked terrifically. We woke up that day, and she didn’t have a clue what was happening later that night. It was a normal day for her, but not for me! I was so excited and nervous. But it didn’t matter. She was such a joy that day and she just kept reminding me why I was about to do what I was about to do. She gave me butterflies all day. When we got back to the condo after a day on the boat, I went down to the beach to check on everything while Theresa was showering. I was so ready to ask her to marry me. When I got back to the condo, she was still getting ready and everyone was ready, so I told them to go ahead with out us so I could share a moment with her before we walked down. We danced in the living room. She had no idea what was about to happen. She’s ready to go down to the beach and I’m more than ready. When we get there friends and family are waiting for us at the bar. I ask Theresa if she wants to take a walk down the beach before the party and she said of course, so we take off down the beach. As we got closer, she saw the set up, and as we got even closer, she noticed there was a big framed picture of the 2 of us, and she squeezed my arm so tightly. I couldn’t look her way so I just kept walking forward. Once we got to the spot, I turned to her, grabbed both of her arms, and told her how I felt about her. Then I dropped down on one knee and asked her to marry me in the spot where I first told her I loved her. She said yes. Our family and friends were celebrating from the restaurant where they could see the entire thing. And Theresa and I popped a bottle of champagne to celebrate. It was the best moment of my life – June 26, 2019. Thanks for sharing your birthday Dad. We danced and partied all night long after that on the beach.