We're getting married!

Both Aaron and Rachel were socially shy and honestly a little bit awkward. They didn't expect for a random lunch date to lead to what it did. The two met at McAllisters for lunch and talked until Aaron was almost late for class. After his class he came and picked Rachel up for a movie at his apartment. The two decided to take things slow for a while after having the conversation of if either of them wanted this to go anywhere. Aaron and Rachel had both agreed they weren't ready to call it anything, but that they did want it to go some where eventually and until then they weren't going anywhere. About a week went by and Aaron ended up calling Rachel "babe" while tickling her. Rachel stopped and asked Aaron if that meant that they were now going to put a label on things. They both agreed there was no point in waiting any longer; the feelings were mutual. From that point on the rest is history.

While sitting at home one day in July Rachel realized that she did not know when they officially started dating... Not wanting to directly ask Aaron she had a friend ask him saying that it was needed for a gift for Rachel. Shortly after the friend agreed to do it Rachel recieved a text from Aaron saying "Babe please don't be mad, but when did we start dating?" At this moment Rachel busted out laughing and had to admit to him that she didn't know either and that her plan failed. The two joked around for a bit picking on one another for not knowing their Anniversary. Finally they decided the confusion was because they were together for a while without calling the relationship anything and that they had now gone so long without knowing. Aaron and Rachel figured out that it had to be one of three days so obviously they picked the middle one. 02-20-17

Aaron and Rachel started dating in February of 2017, by may of 2017 Aaron was graduating and moving back to Georgia. Both Aaron and Rachel were nervous on what to expect with the long distance of him in Georgia and her still having 2 years left at Western. The couple made it a rule that they would see eachother at least once a month if not more and during each visit they would plan the next so that when the time came to leave they could say "well I'll see you in __ days". Those rules still only helped so much. Aaron and Rachel both wished that they could spend more time together than what they could and that the distance wasnt as hard on them. The school year was easier for then because Western was only a 3 hour drive from Atlanta. The summer and holidays proved to be a bit more difficult thanks to Blowing Rock being 5 hours from Atlanta and having family events going on. Even after two years of long distance the goodbyes never got easier but they found a way to work through them. They definitely had their rough patches and moments where the distance got to them, but in the end they survived it and were able to count down the days until Aaron got to move back to North Carolina with Rachel June 24th 2019. Out of the two years there were two goodbyes that hurt the most. 1. When Rachel had to go home after Aaron Graduated. This marked the first of many long drives for both of them. 2. When Aaron had to go home after he proposed. The couple didn't even get a full 24 hours together to celebrate being engaged before they had to go their separate ways again.

It was quite a busy weekend for Aaron between his sisters wedding and Rachel's graduation and traveling between two states to be there. Rachel had a busy day dealing with family and friends coming up and hoping that Aaron made it in time for graduation and all that afternoon. Aaron made it early enough that the two were able to have a quiet lunch alone before all the hustle of the evening started. After the graduation ceremony everyone met up for a big celebratory dinner. Somehow in the chaos of dinner Aaron managed to sneak away from the table with Rachel's father without her noticing. Aaron wanted to make sure before he did anything that he had asked her fathers permission. After dinner Aaron and Rachel went back to their usual date spot at the local airport to share some wine and stargaze like they had done most weekends when Aaron was up visiting. When They first got there Rachel knew something was up because she saw Luke's truck even though Luke had said they were going to head home when they left dinner. Luke got out of the truck and came over to them which only made Rachel more suspicious. Rachel knew the two were for sure up to something when Luke looked and Aaron and said "you ready" and turned on the camera on his phone. Aaron then started saying "you know I love you" and "you know I will always love you". At this point Rachel was already shaking preparing for what was coming next. Aaron hopped of the tailgate and got down on one knee pulling the ring box out of the tailgitch where he hid it and then he proceeded to ask Rachel to marry him and to finally make him stop waiting to be able to ask her (the couple had set a rule that he couldn't propose until she graduated). Obviously Rachel said yes!