We're so excited to celebrate with you!

We met in spring of 2015 while taking an honors college class together at the University of Alabama. We were paired up to facilitate a group of high schoolers during a 2 day leadership conference. While we made a good pair for the conference we didn't start dating at first. It wasn't until a year later that we re-connected preparing to facilitate the conference for a second time. Michaela noticed Zach when he stopped her to chat after a meeting and she decided to pursue him.

After just one date, Michaela asked Zach to meet her parents who would be in town in a few weeks. Zach said "sure." Seven dates later and a smooth meeting with the parents, Zach and Michaela became a couple on April 8, 2016. The four years that followed included graduating from UA, moving seven hours away to Memphis and Middlesboro for graduate school and medical school, adopting a cat, winning a national championship (RTR), moving a different 7 hours away to Detroit and Knoxville for job opportunities and finally making it back to each other in Memphis.

The beginning of 2020 was off to a promising start- I had bought a ring, discussed my intentions to marry Michaela with her family and was planning to propose to her on a spring break trip to St. Louis. Everything was coming together perfectly, but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. and we were unable to travel. I decided to delay the proposal until we moved to Memphis, where we could be surrounded by the support of our parents and a few close friends. As the time approached, Michaela told me that she’d like to look at wedding venues with her parents the week we moved to Memphis. She half-jokingly informed me that I’d be introduced as “the live-in boyfriend”, not knowing that I’d be proposing earlier that week. I moved to Memphis a few days prior to Michaela to plan the proposal at one of our favorite Memphis date locations, the Levitt Shell Amphitheater. Everything was going according to plan on the big day. The only issue was the 80% chance of thunderstorms at the time of the proposal. I wore my phone battery out constantly checking for weather updates throughout the day! We had reservations for dinner and on the way, I detoured to Overton Park “to get my bearings in our new city”. When we arrived at the Levitt Shell, we walked down to the stage to take a picture. When I went to take our selfie, I realized that my hand was shaking out of nervous excitement. Now was the time. I took Michaela’s hands and proceeded to tell her how proud I was to be in this relationship, that she was my best friend and that I knew that God had prepared us for each other. As I dropped to a knee and asked her to marry me, the thunder started booming behind us. Thankfully, Michaela could barely wait for me to finish my question before she said yes! Just as we got under cover, the rain began and we waited out the storm laughing and embracing. In that moment, I realized I was the luckiest man in the world; the storm waited for us, and I was going to marry the woman of my dreams.