There are plenty of things you can expect to find at Coachella - your favorite artist you've never heard of, a giant ferris wheel (wink wink, Foo), overpriced pedicabs, Diplo (probably), and LOTS of dirt. What you probably wouldn't expect to find? Your future wife, but that's where this story begins. I had a long cross-country flight from Atlanta to start that fateful day, followed by a ~2+ hour drive from LAX in rush hour traffic. Needless to say we (myself, Tyler Smith, and Jess Nickell) were running a bit late. The rest of the squad, including Rachel, was waiting around for us in the Walmart parking lot so that we could drive in as a group and make sure our camping sites were together. Rachel has many incredible qualities, but 'patience' probably wouldn't crack the top 50 on the list - no surprise, but she made a very strong case to leave us behind and head in...turns out that would've been the worst mistake of her life! Luckily for us both Loren Baxter fought to keep waiting (probably saying something like "Austin is the man! We can't leave without him!") and we eventually got to the rendezvous point and collectively made our way inside the festival grounds. The chemistry was palpable from the moment we officially met while building the campsite, and it wasn't long before we were bonding over Illenium, White Claws, and Jenga (shout out to Nicole & Tim for the assist). The real catalyst to love was when Rachel serenaded me with 'Concrete Angel' by Dash Berlin and by the end of the night I told Loren "Dude I'm gonna marry Nicole's friend". As they say, "the rest is history"!

It started off like any other Friday....well, for Rachel at least. After a full day of work we had plans to get drinks and go to dinner in downtown Austin. After a couple of cocktails I told Rachel we'd be riding scooters to the restaurant. Her response? "No let's just Uber" After some convincing ("It'll be faster I swear") we embarked on our journey across the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge. Little did Rachel know I had a photographer waiting on the bridge for the big moment. Given the beautiful skyline backdrop I suggested that we pull over and ask someone to take a picture of us. When we posed I dropped down on one knee (so hard that I bruised it) and asked Rachel to spend the rest of her life with me! After a photoshoot on the bridge we hopped in an Uber ("Wait so we aren't going to Juliet for dinner?! I wanted pasta!") and made our way over to Hula Hut on Lake Austin for a surprise reception with family & friends.