It all started back in the summer of 2001 at Sea World Summer Camp in San Antonio, TX (yes, Sea World has a week long, overnight summer camp- go check it out, it's awesome!). Alex and I were both 12 years old at the time. Alex went to camp that summer with his friend Mike at the same time that my best friend, Evan Alston (now Mrs. Quinn), attended camp. (Thank God for Evan's love of killer whales!) Alex and Evan met, became friends and stayed in touch after camp was over. Evan would talk to Alex on the phone quite often and whenever I was over at Evan's house I would talk to Alex as well. The three of us agreed to attend camp together the next summer. In the summer of 2002, Alex and I officially met in the camp cafeteria at Sea World San Antonio. After meeting at camp in 2002, Alex and I began "dating" (he asked me out over AIM!). Alex's parents would drive Alex from Sugar Land, TX to Cypress, TX to spend the day with Evan and me on the weekends as often as we could convince them. Since we couldn't be with each other all the time, we stayed glued to the phone. We would talk for hours and were constantly being told to hang up to spend time with our families. I can still feel my heart jump into my throat when we'd be on the phone late at night and Alex's Mom or Dad would pick up the line and say "Alex, say goodnight". Double points if we'd already been told to get off the phone!

Over the next few years, throughout middle and high school, we shared some great memories. A first kiss (then many more!), numerous homecomings and proms, countless dinner dates at the Chili's by the West Oaks Mall (worked great as a halfway point!), and more. After graduating high school in 2007, Alex and I both attended Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX. After a short while, we ended up going our separate ways. I moved to Abilene, TX to take a job and Alex returned to Houston, TX to continue school. Over the next few years we talked every now and then but it wasn't until the summer of 2011 after I had moved back to Houston, TX that we saw each other again. It was then that we both realized we couldn't live without each other and we've been together ever since! Over the last 6 years we've moved into an apartment together, opened a Kroger card together (this is when you know it's serious ya'll!), became an Auntie and Uncle, bought a house together, welcomed doggies into our home (our Pitbull Mix, Bear and Pomeranian, Dolce), celebrated 4 job promotions, made it through 6 hunting seasons together, enjoyed several wonderful vacations, and so much more! Only one thing was missing… - Alison

The process started quite some time ago with asking Aly's parents for their daughter's hand in marriage and for their blessing in doing so. I am fairly traditional when it comes to this sort of thing and asking for their blessing was an important first step. With Lisa (Alison's mom) I asked for her blessing on a quick car ride to the store; with John (Alison's dad) it was a phone call; and with Ron (Alison's late step-dad) it was through the families' annual balloon message release. Once I had everyone's blessing it was on to planning the proposal and reconnaissance for the perfect ring. I spent countless hours researching proposal ideas and finally landed on the perfect one. A hot air balloon ride. I hadn't figured out the back story yet, but somehow I would convince Aly for us to take a trip to the Texas Hill Country and that while we were there we should check off hot air balloon from our bucket list. The plan was set and in motion...that is until a hot air balloon crashed in the Texas Hill Country taking the lives of multiple people on board. Time to reassess the proposal and go a different route.

We had scheduled a getaway weekend in the Wimberley, TX area for the beginning of December 2016 and I decided I would do it that weekend. I updated both of our families on my plan and asked them to be there to help coordinate as well as celebrate our engagement. The plan was to do it at Wimberley Valley Winery, our favorite winery in the area, and I called and spoke with the manager to coordinate. They have a beautiful outside area with multiple decks and has always been a favorite of ours to relax under the shade of the pecan trees while indulging in one of their Saturday wine slushies (they're delicious). However, as we approached our romantic weekend the weather was scheduled to be 100% chance of rain and would not budge so the plan would have to change. If I couldn’t propose outside, I decided I would set up a private wine tasting and surprise Aly then. It was now Thanksgiving and Lisa, Mimi, and the entire gang was at our house to relax, eat, and give thanks. Lisa pulled me aside and mentioned how wonderful it would be if I were to propose tomorrow while all of the family was in town together. This hit home with me because to me family is everything so I started thinking how I could accomplish this. I called my mom and my sister, Jen, and began brainstorming a plan to get Aly out of the house so we could decorate and surprise her with the proposal. However, the next morning I woke up to Lisa telling me to wait and go with the original plan of proposing at the winery the next weekend. I called my family to give them the update and even though I’m physically and mentally exhausted from the constant change, I began planning once again.

At this point, I believed that Aly had come to suspect that the proposal would happen during our weekend getaway. This will not do. It should be a surprise, and so I began conjuring up a plan to propose during the work week before we left for Wimberley on Friday. I would propose in my parent’s backyard! It seemed like such a fitting place considering we have known each other since middle school and spent countless hours in the pool and by the fireplace in the backyard. My sister and I spent hours wrapping each column with white lights in my parents back yard, setting up poinsettias, and arranging hand painted wooden letters that spelled "Marry me?” The only problem with the plan was how to get Aly over to my parent’s house. Since my parents were already scheduled to watch our dogs for the weekend, I tried to convince Aly that we should drop them off on Thursday night instead of Friday morning. This didn’t fly. Aly insisted we wait until Friday morning. After work on Thursday I tried to convince Aly to go with me to my parents’ house to “have dinner” and drop off the dogs, but was unsuccessful. Little did she know that only 45 minutes away there were 4,000 white lights, 50 white poinsettias, a hand painted wooden proposal, and cameras set up to record the show. Once again I called my family to let them know the plan hadn’t worked out and that we wouldn’t be coming, so the brainstorming started again.

If Aly was expecting for me to propose on Saturday, because this was originally when our "private tasting" was reserved for, then it would be a surprise if it happened on Friday. I was able to coordinate with the manager to request that he call and say that he had “accidentally” overbooked our tasting for Saturday and that our private tasting would be moved to Friday evening. We received the call on Friday on our way up to Wimberley and Aly was shocked that they would expect us to move our appointment up a day because of their “mistake”! I told her it was fine and worked out better this way because we were going to get in to town right around that time.

My family was planning to drive up to the winery early to set up and decorate the private tasting room as well as coordinate with the staff. Since I hadn’t spoken to them since before Aly and I left Houston, I had no idea where the ring was, who to speak with, where to go once inside, etc. Once we pulled into the winery parking lot, I didn't see my parent’s car (either good hiding or they hit traffic and didn't make it in time). Aly and I went inside and told them we were here for our private tasting. As they walked us into the private room, they handed us a gift bag and said it was a “gift” from the winery (it actually had the ring inside). As we entered the private tasting room, there was a doormat that read “Aly, will you…” Once we stepped inside, the whole room was decorated in white lights and poinsettias, and the letters spelling out “marry me?” Aly was shocked and completely caught off guard! I pulled the ring out of the gift bag, took her hand in mine, lowered down to one knee and asked her to marry me! After the obvious “yes” I tried to walk Aly back out into the main lobby to all of the winery visitors who had stopped to watch. Aly was reluctant to face the applause but as I led her out of the room we turned to the corner where my family was waiting with hugs, kisses and wine! I guess the fifth time was the charm! It was an amazing moment in our lives and although the planning nearly killed me a few times it only made the moment that much sweeter. -Alex