We're so excited to celebrate with you!!

Lake and I met while attending Heritage High School in Wake Forest, NC. He was a junior and I was a senior, just a couple of months away from graduation. We were in the same AP physics class, and we both caught each other’s eye. One day, Lake came up to me and my friend’s table. We struck up a conversation, and from that point on, we have spoken every day since. We discovered that we lived just down the street from each other. Our first date was at Chick-Fil-A, where I was so nervous, I could barely eat. We sat there and just talked for over two hours. After a couple more dates and a first kiss, Lake asked me to be his girlfriend (and of course I said yes!!).

We started dating a couple of months before I headed off to North Carolina State University. Lake was still a senior in high school, and my college was less than thirty minutes away, so we would see each other almost every weekend and even during the week. Being a huge State fan himself, Lake loved coming to visit, attending football games, eating at Talley Student Union, exploring the campus, etc. I would come home to watch his high school swim meets and attend his senior homecoming, prom, and graduation. Things got tough when Lake went off to school at University of North Carolina at Wilmington, which was a two-hour drive from Raleigh. Even though it was so difficult being apart, it brought us closer. It made us cherish the time we had together (I guess absence does make the heart grow fonder). During our years at college, we individually went through immense challenges. We both decided to change majors, which was difficult to say the least. We both had health issues on top of the normal amount of stress a college student endures. But we had each other, and I don’t know what I would have done without Lake there by my side every step of the way. I’m sure everyone can agree that the COVID-19 pandemic was one of the most difficult things we’ve ever experienced. Lake and I are no exception, and our relationship was put to the ultimate test. We had to stay six feet apart from each other for over two months. But Lake would still come and see me all the time, riding his bike over to my house and sitting in the yard with me for hours to talk. That’s when I knew for sure I never wanted to be apart from Lake ever again; that I’d want to be with him forever. Fast-forward to now, we are living in an apartment together and have a one-year-old kitten named Whiskey. We have faced so many challenges but have come out stronger together on the other side. I wouldn’t change a single thing.

Finding the perfect ring for the perfect girl was not easy. After long searches, a lost (then found) ring, and many ideas coming and going, I finally established a plan. I wanted it to be intimate at our home, include our new kitten, Whiskey, and use my Great Grandmother’s ring. To get Alex dressed up without suspicion, I informed her we had a nice dinner reservation downtown that night. I quickly got myself dressed and while she was getting ready, I prepared Whiskey with his bowtie. With me nervous as ever, and Whiskey having no clue what was happening, her Mom and step dad, John, snuck into the apartment and hid around the corner. Once Alex was ready, she came out to find me and Whiskey standing in the living room (looking very sharp). She knelt to look at his tie, and to her surprise, a ring box was attached. I took the box from Whiskey, dropped to my knee, and read her my proposal speech (I’m glad I wrote it all down, but pretty sure I still messed up with how nervous I was). It was the perfect moment, and it felt like the start of the rest of my life.