Jessie: Sometime in the very early 2000s, I went to see a UNA production of The Rocky Horror Show. In the beginning scenes, a tall shadow slithered out from behind the curtain, clad in leather pants with flames printed across the front, a shock of blonde hair framing his face. I took one look at this mock Rob Zombie dressed as Riff-Raff, leaned over to my sister, and said "I'm gonna marry that man." Through the next few years, we shared photography and art classes together at UNA and were good friends. We fell out of touch when he left to work for Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans, disappearing into the West Coast some time after. Years later, we found ourselves on our own again and reconnected via social media. He moved back to Florence, and a dear friend said, "You're gonna marry that man." I believed her, and we've been inseparable ever since.

Matt: We took a trip to London to visit her sister, Natalie, and I planned to propose at Highgate Cemetery, one of her favorite historical sites. But three days into our trip, we came down with COVID. We spent days quarantining in a hotel (eating ramen and watching Ghostbusters) until we relocated to an AirBnB just outside of the city. I was disappointed in the change of plans and was absolutely stumped as to where and when to propose. We were a good distance away from Highgate and I was still exhausted. I looked outside the cottage window and found an English garden in full bloom perfectly framed. What was I thinking? This was the place. With the help of her sister, I dropped the engagement ring into a glass of champagne. Cliche? Maybe, but I know this girl, and she loves her bubbles. So much so that there was a slight risk of her swallowing the ring. Natalie pointed to Jessie's glass and said, "I think yours is bubbling more than mine." It took a moment, but she saw the ring nestled at the bottom of the champagne flute. When she looked up, I was on one knee, and said "How about it? Will you share your life with me?" Jessie always said she wouldn't be a hand-over-mouth-girl like you see in proposal videos, but she 100% was. Thankfully, she was able to say yes and we were able to save the glass of champagne after fishing the ring out of it with a fork.