Sam and Austin met at college at the University of Georgia during the Fall semester of 2010. They don't recall the exact moment that they met, as they had a lot of mutual friends and were in some of the same science classes. Sam loved to visit Austin when he was working at Silver Dollar for some extremely discounted beverages. Sam and Austin remained friends during all four years at UGA, high-fiving on graduation day in May of 2014. Go Dawgs!

Austin moved to New Orleans in 2017 after living in Brisbane, Australia for two years for medical school. Sam was living in Atlanta, working at Emory University. When Austin returned to the states, he text Sam and asked her if he could take her on a date. Sam was unsure of why someone who lived nearly 500 miles from her would want to go on a date, but she thought Austin was pretty awesome and wanted to give her friend from college a shot at romance. Austin flew into Atlanta and Sam picked him up at the airport. They headed to dinner at Torched Hop, an Atlanta restaurant and microbrewery, where Austin barely ordered food, which Sam thought was strange. Then Austin had the audacity to order a cocktail at a brewery, and Sam wasn't so sure if she saw a future with someone who didn't like beer! After dinner, they headed to Establishment for a cocktail. Upon leaving the bar, they had their first kiss. The rest is history!

Austin and Sam planned a trip out to one of their favorite places, Bozeman, Montana. Austin left a few days early because Sam didn't want to use all of her PTO. Austin prefaced that during this trip he had a few "surprises for her". When Sam arrived, Austin's best friend, Cole, picked her up from the airport. At this time, Sam's hopes and dreams of this being a romantic trip had vanished, when she realized her surprise was to spend the trip with their close friend. The next day, they went to Yellowstone and Austin said he had another "surprise". Sam's heart lifted again, only to be pushed back down with meeting up with three of Austin's friends. They explored beautiful Yellowstone and had a very fun day. When they got back to Bozeman, Sam asked Austin why he invited her to a seemingly "boys only" trip. He told her he wanted her there and that was that. After another gorgeous day of hiking in Montana, the following morning Austin asked Sam to "get ready for a photo for their Christmas card". So Sam did, trying not to get her hopes up too high again. Cole, Sam, and Austin hiked briefly to the first vista of Storm Castle, where Austin asked Cole to take some photos of him and Sam. During the pictures, Austin got down on a knee and asked Sam to be his wife. Sam said finally!