Little did I know this date would be a whole lot more than just my college graduation. After walking across the stage and celebrating with my family in Johnson City, TN I took my first ever drive to Banner Elk, NC to celebrate with, my now Maid of Honor, Morgan. Over the next couple years this drive became something I probably could have done blindfolded. I got to Banner Elk just as the Cafe was closing, Morgan and I had a drink while we waited on this guy she had a crush on, Dan, to finish closing. While we were waiting Morgan introduced me to another guy she worked with, Nick. He had a black Nike hat on backwards and I was immediately interested. That hat is still my favorite to this day and I probably will never let him get rid of it. Dan had to convince Nick to go to the bar with us after they finally got off; you can see Dan’s exact words on the “Wedding Party” page. We all hung out for the rest of the night, it was the perfect ending to celebrating my college graduation. Some of you might be questioning if 2017 is truly the first time we met, and that is because it took me a year to convince Nick to take me on a proper date 😉.

It almost worked out perfectly. The ring came in the mail one weekend while Britt was out of town, but I made the mistake of thinking I could hide the ring in a drawer that she would never open. Needless to say, she opened the drawer & saw the ring box that I’d placed there. That next week, she kept asking suspicious questions & making comments about getting married, so I had a feeling she knew. I confronted her about it & of course she cracked & told me that she saw it. She was upset & felt like she ruined the surprise, but little did she know, I would make sure she wouldn’t see it coming. I decided I was going to ask her when she would least expect it. I didn’t have work the following Tuesday, so I decided that was perfect. Britt went into our home office for her last meeting of the day, so as soon as she closed the door. I hung the string lights all across the dining room, with the pictures hanging from them, lit 100 tiny candles (My thumb was burnt). Just as I’m taking a deep sigh of relief that I got it all set up, I hear Britt on the phone with her Mom & she was extremely upset about something that happened in the meeting. I was trying my best to console her, without standing there thinking about why my timing was so bad & whether I was still going to propose that day. I walked back out to the dining room & looked at all the pictures of us hung up there & decided that I didn’t even care…I wasn’t going to wait another minute before I asked her to be my wife. I called her in the dining room & she walked out with tears already in her eyes. Her jaw dropped, as she walked around the corner and saw me on one knee in a puddle of rose pedals. The first words out of her mouth were “Are you freakin’ serious right now?”. She jumped in my arms & I had to ask her a second time before she actually said yes! It certainly isn’t the most extravagant engagement story, but I think it’s perfectly imperfect, just like we are.