We’re getting married 🤍 and we hope you can join us

It all began in September of 2018. Dillon was a freshman in high school and had decided that he wasn’t going to worry about girls—he was determined to focus on himself and his grades. One day, his teacher invited him to join the upcoming musical, and he eagerly accepted. In just 20 minutes, Dillon switched from basic theatre to advanced theatre. When he walked into his new class for the first time, he sat toward the front on the left side. As he glanced to his right, he saw a beautiful girl sitting there, lost in a book. It was love at first sight—she was, without a doubt, the most beautiful girl Dillon had ever seen. But his romantic moment took a sudden turn when she spoke her first words to him: “GET OUT OF MY WAY, YOU STUPID FRESHMAN!” This outburst came after Dillon tried to sneak up on her from behind a curtain—an attempt that clearly didn’t go as planned. Fast forward a couple of months to Christmas. Dillon visited his best friend’s house, and as his friend introduced him to the family, Dillon was stunned to discover that the girl he had been crushing on for months was his friend’s sister. “Hi, I’m Alissa,” she said. Dillon, caught off guard, introduced himself, then immediately pulled his friend aside, scolding him for not telling him that the girl Dillon liked was his sister. Later that night, Dillon and Alissa sat in the car passing notes back and forth while watching the Bradley Lights. In one of the notes, Dillon nervously confessed his feelings. To his surprise, Alissa admitted she liked him too. But just as his heart soared, she left him a note saying, “I like you a lot, but I don’t know how this would work because of our age difference.” Though disappointed, Dillon knew he had to be patient—and patient he was, for six long months. Finally, on March 30, 2019, everything changed. The two of them sat on Alissa’s carport after a school performance of Twelfth Night. The show had been the talk of their friends because Dillon couldn’t help but kiss Alissa on the forehead during every performance, even though she had wanted to keep their relationship a secret until the show was over. Dillon, on the other hand, couldn’t wait to prove his friends wrong—they had said he’d never win her over, but he knew he had. That night on the carport, Dillon and Alissa made a pact: they would share their first kiss at her senior prom in just a couple of weeks. But Dillon couldn’t wait. He leaned in and whispered, “Maybe we don’t have to wait until prom,” and kissed her. It was his first kiss, and neither of them quite knew what they were doing—so they kissed with their eyes wide open. Shocked, Alissa playfully smacked Dillon on the leg and shouted, “YOU’RE THE ONE WHO WANTED TO WAIT UNTIL PROM!” At that moment, her mom came outside and asked them to come inside. Alissa, still reeling from the kiss, quietly told her mom what had just happened. Her mom smiled and asked, “So, what are y’all going to do?” Alissa looked at Dillon, smiled, and replied, “Well, I guess we have to date now!” And that was the beginning of Dillon and Alissa’s love story—a story of patience, surprise, and a kiss that started it all.

The Proposal Fast forward to December 2022. With Christmas approaching, Dillon had already been searching for the perfect engagement ring for Alissa. After some time, he finally found it at Zales—a beautiful, brand-new ring that was exactly what Alissa wanted. With the ring in hand, the planning began. Dillon and Melissa, Alissa’s mother, quickly organized a three-day trip to Nashville, framed as a birthday celebration for Alissa. In reality, the trip had one purpose: for Dillon to propose. They planned everything in just an hour during Dillon’s lunch break at work. The centerpiece of the plan was to propose at the Grand Ole Opry, a place Alissa had always wanted to visit. On February 4, 2023, the big day arrived, and they hit the road. Dillon was incredibly nervous, sweating bullets as he mentally prepared for the moment. He had written an entire speech in his head, but anxiety crept in with each passing minute. To make things more stressful, Dillon insisted on wearing his letterman jacket all day, even though he felt overheated—he refused to let the ring out of his pocket for even a second. When they arrived at the Grand Ole Opry, Dillon discreetly informed the tour guide about the proposal plan. The guide advised them to stay at the back of the tour group, and they followed his advice, even going so far as to make Alissa admire a pair of Carrie Underwood’s boots three times to stall for time. At one point, Alissa tried to slip her hand into Dillon’s pocket where the ring was hidden, and for the first time ever, he swatted her hand away. Finally, they reached the iconic circle on the Opry stage. The tour guide took a photo of them, and as Alissa started to walk away, Dillon stopped her with, “Hold on a minute.” This was the moment of truth. Although Dillon knew she would say yes, he couldn’t shake the fear that he might mess up. And, as expected, the carefully planned speech he had prepared vanished from his mind the moment he opened his mouth. All he could say was, “I love you so much, and I want you to be my wife. Will you marry me?” Alissa, on the verge of tears, managed a soft, “Mhm.” They kissed, Dillon slipped the ring onto her finger, and to their delight, they were taken to the same dressing room once shared by Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood for a private photo session. It was, without a doubt, the greatest day of Dillon’s life.