Abraham and Aubrey first met at Emmanuel Baptist Church's college bible study last February. After their initial introduction, they continued to talk to each other at various church events and college nights as the spring semester progressed. Their conversations got longer and longer until they were regularly the last ones remaining at events. Over this time, Aubrey rapidly developed very strong feelings for Abraham, despite her attempts to guard her heart. Abraham, however, did not share those feelings, as he eventually expressed on two separate occasions late in the spring semester. Aubrey has since christened those occasions as "Friendzone #1" and "Friendzone #2". While Aubrey outwardly agreed with Abraham's statements that the two were merely friends, these conversations broke her heart. Despite her best efforts, she still liked Abraham...and was desperately wished for a change of his heart. After finals had ended, Aubrey and Abraham went their respective ways for the summer: Abraham returning to Kerrville for a co-op lasting until December and Aubrey to Fort Worth for her summer break. Aubrey had an enjoyable summer with friends and family, taking two vacations with her mom to wash away the lingering feelings from the spring semester. While it took all summer, she finally convinced herself in early August that she was officially "over" Abraham. Abraham also had an enjoyable summer of work but experienced a very different set of emotions compared to Aubrey. While Aubrey was convincing herself she no longer saw Abraham as anything more than a friend, Abraham found himself deeply missing Aubrey, and thinking of her often, which surprised him to no small degree. As the summer progressed, Abraham finally decided that, contrary to his original statements, he did see Aubrey as more than a friend. Upon this realization, he determined to ask her out. Abraham called Justin in early August to ask for his permission to take Aubrey on a date, and, after receiving his blessing, wrote a letter asking Aubrey to join him at Olive Garden on August 22nd. Aubrey received the letter on August 19th to her great astonishment and joy. The first date went exceptionally well, as the two had dinner and then went for a nighttime stroll at Wolf Pen Creek, a park in the area. They talked extensively about important topics, and concluded the date at midnight, having spent a total of eight hours in each other’s company. Abraham and Aubrey continued to talk via phone as Abraham remained in Kerrville for his internship, getting to know each other until September, when they officially began dating. They then fell into a regular long-distance routine of countless late night weekend phone calls, scattered weekend visits (all of which included long walks at Wolf Pen Creek), and long texts whenever the two weren’t together or speaking over the phone. The pair averaged six hours with every call, and yet they still haven’t run out of things to talk about. The semester was long and difficult, but the period of Abraham and Aubrey’s long-distance relationship finally ended during Aubrey’s winter break, when Abraham traveled to Fort Worth to spend a week with Aubrey’s family. Aubrey then accompanied Abraham to Kerrville to stay with him and his family for the remainder of the break. The two grew infinitely closer through this time with both each other and were refreshed as they returned to Texas A&M in the spring: Aubrey to finish her sophomore year of Nutrition and Abraham to finish his undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering. Abraham and Aubrey experienced a crazy semester together of late nights, little sleep, horrible professors, busy schedules, and hectic wedding planning, but enjoyed every second of the craziness together, falling more in love with each passing day. They are now long-distance once again until their wedding, as Abraham returns to his internship in San Antionio and Aubrey returns to Fort Worth for a summer of work at Chick-Fil-A.

Abraham still doesn’t know the exact moment when he truly fell in love with Aubrey, but it was at some point during their time together at his ranch in Kerrville over the winter break. When the couple returned to school in January, it was not long before Abraham decided to propose. After encouragement from trusted friends and family to pursue marriage with Aubrey, Abraham officially asked for her father’s blessing in late February. Upon receiving her father’s blessing and being gifted the family diamond that is now the centerpiece of Aubrey’s engagement ring, Abraham began to plan the engagement. After much thought, Abraham decided that he would propose to Aubrey on March 6th at Wolf Pen Creek Park, the location of their first date and the park in which most of their memories had been made. The Sunday before the big day, Abraham casually suggested that Aubrey get her nails done and requested that she wear her favorite dress for his brother’s thesis defense, which was to occur on the morning of March 6th. Although the questions were proposed in the most casual of fashions, Aubrey was still immediately curious as to why Abraham was suddenly so particular about such minor details. After a phone call with her mother and a lot of texts from her close friend Ellie, however, Aubrey was reassured that Abraham’s requests were perfectly reasonable given the formal nature of his brother’s defense. Thus, her suspicions were quieted for the time. Aubrey continued her week of studying and classwork, oblivious to the upcoming engagement until Wednesday afternoon, when she received a text from a new group chat that simply read “hello”. Curious as to who could be texting her so unexpectedly on an unknown group chat, she viewed the members of the text chain and was thrown into confusion when she saw that it contained not only Abraham but also many of his brothers and sisters-in-law, as well as Aubrey’s mother. Immediately after the text appeared on Aubrey’s phone, she called her mother to inquire about its purpose. She told Aubrey to delete the chain and forget anything had happened. Aubrey’s suspicions were immediately ignited once more, and she soon became convinced that a proposal was imminent. There was simply no other logical explanation for such an odd sequence of events to occur. The next two days were fast and furious, and involved many text exchanges between Aubrey and Ellie, reassuring phone calls from Aubrey’s mom, and an elaborate plan to divert Aubrey’s heavy suspicion to a different date through a decoy letter from Abraham. The details are too intricate to relay here, but the diversion was successful, and by Thursday night Aubrey had been successfully convinced that her proposal, if it was on the horizon, would not come for at least another two weeks. Friday morning dawned with a blissfully unaware and yet still thoroughly confused Aubrey and incredibly excited Hurt and Reeves families. Abraham and Aubrey met on campus and attended his brother’s defense, where all of his family members managed to keep the upcoming engagement a complete secret. Aubrey then departed for her biology exam, after which Abraham walked her to her car. Under the pretense of needing to waste an hour or so before their fancy dinner (which had been “planned” to celebrate their last evening together before their separation over Spring Break), Abraham suggested a stroll through their park. Upon arrival at the park, Abraham gently and subtly guided Aubrey to the pavilion under which they always sat and suggested they sit for a while. Aubrey readily agreed to this idea, as it was customary for the two to spend hours conversing on those now-familiar benches under the protection of the pavilion. It was here that Abraham confessed his love to Aubrey for the first time, after which he got to one knee and proposed. After a few seconds of shock, Aubrey, overjoyed and full of perfect happiness, accepted Abraham’s proposal and the two were officially engaged.

The center diamond on Aubrey's ring once belonged to her great-grandmother, Hazel Elaine. Aubrey's great-grandfather, Christopher Aubrey, gave the diamond to Elaine in 1976 after their house burned down and they lost all their belongings, including her wedding ring. Elaine then passed down that diamond to her daughter Stephanie (Aubrey's grandmother) who wore it as her wedding ring for many years. When her daughter Tiffany (Aubrey's mother) got married, it was passed down and worn as a necklace. 50 years later, Aubrey now wears it as the center stone of her engagement ring.