Addison and Caylee met at a movie premiere for "I Saw the Light" in Nashville, TN at the Belcourt Theatre on 10/17/15. Addison was attending with his father, Neil, who works for "Parade Magazine" and Caylee was attending with her friend, Lauren, who works for "Sounds Like Nashville." Neil and Lauren were working on the red carpet, and Caylee and Addison were standing behind them. After seeing the movie, Addison and Neil and Caylee and Lauren all attended the after party at Acme Feed and Seed. There, Addison and Caylee talked more and it was obvious, something was there. Their whole relationship was long distance as Caylee lived in Murfreesboro/Nashville, TN and Addison lived in Memphis, TN, Dekalb, IL and is now residing in Louisville, KY to finish up his PhD. They had been dating for just about four years when Addison popped the question at his family Christmas dinner on 12/26/19. Addison told Caylee that his uncle asked him to give a toast, and during said toast, Addison got down on one knee and asked Caylee to marry him.

Meeting Addison was a very nice surprise on a night that wasn't exactly going as planned. It was a LOT colder on than I had prepared for, I dropped and broke my phone as the stars of the movie walked onto the red carpet, someone (I still have my suspicions, Addison Pond) took the last popcorn before my friend & I got into the theater & the movie ended up being a total snooze fest. I obviously wasn't expecting to go home that night maybe having a potential boyfriend, but I just had this BIG feeling telling me that I needed to know Addison. I was hoping that he would text me when he got home or even the next day (I got a new phone FAST), but after I realized that was obviously not happening, I did what any female my age would do. I stalked him on Facebook and sent him a message. Addison is brilliant, funny, adventerous (except when it comes to heights) and so loving. He has been there for me when I couldn’t be there for myself and he is always cheering me on. I have loved being with Addison, and even though our whole relationship has been long distance and there has been some challenges, I wouldn't change anything... except maybe the length of how long we dated before he asked me for forever. Seriously, he made me wait FOUR years. I saw couples meet, get married and have kids in a shorter time frame than that. But we finally made it through that big challenge and now I'm very excited to marry him in May with all of our friends and family in attendance (hopefully COVID-19 doesn't ruin it).

I’ve got to be honest, I only went to this movie premiere in 2015 for the free food and booze, but what I found was so much better. Caylee and I were on the red carpet for the event, and struck up a conversation (ok, SHE may have initiated it, but I did offer her my jacket because it was cold). I remember talking for hours at the reception, and even convincing her to go take a picture with Bradley Whitford (Eric from Billy Madison/the dad from Get Out-don’t worry, I had to explain who he was to her too). Because she broke her phone on the red carpet, we had to exchange numbers the old-fashioned way. I tried to play it cool and wait a few days, but Caylee decided to Facebook stalk me and message me the next day. Caylee and I have spoken every day since then, despite me going to school in 3 different cities in the course of 3 years. While that time certainly hasn’t been easy, with the help of lots of memes, we almost made it through. During this time, I grew to see Caylee as the considerate, thoughtful, funny and beautiful person that she is, and I knew I wouldn’t want to spend my life with anyone else. While I may have waited a little too long to pop the question, we’re all set now. On May 29, 2021, we will officially embark on our lifelong journey of cow and goat ownership, and an abundance of Waffle House trips.