Her: I had decided to give dating apps one more chance so I downloaded Facebook dating. I passed time swiping on the app but never responded much to messages. Something about Justin’s profile made me intrigued to actually give him a chance and respond.

Her: We meet at the Smokin Bull for supper one Saturday night after texting for 2-3 weeks. During those weeks of texting at some point I told Justin how much I loved fried pickles. (I definitely didn’t remember this conversation) On our first date he asked me if I wanted an appetizer. I said sure and that I wasn’t picky about what we ordered. The waitress came back a few minutes later and set down a plate full of fried pickles. Justin shyly smiled from across the table and said, “I remembered you saying you really liked fried pickles.” Who knew something so simple as a plate of fried pickles in a noisy restaurant could make a girl feel so special and be the start of a beautiful connection.

Her: Justin drove from Camden after work on a Friday for a quick supper and movie date after I told him I had a very stressful week. My sister ended up being at the same restaurant we went to so she got to meet him. She called me later and told me she could see in his eyes how much he cared about me when he kept stealing glances at me during the meal.

Him: It was my first time going on a cruise or traveling out of the country. We had an excursion booked to go see the ruins one day in port. We sat on a bus for what seemed like forever before we got there. When we got off the bus we had a little bit of a walk through some trees until we came upon an opening where the ruins were. We had a guided tour that gave us the history of each building. After which we got to explore for a bit. Allie talked me into climbing the pyramid that was there. I’ve always been scared of heights and wasn’t thrilled of the idea…but I went anyways. Once we made it to the top it was so beautiful. And of course Allie tortured me with pictures. I can’t wait for us to share more adventures like this!

Him: With us having a long distance relationship our proposal wasn’t necessarily a surprise, nor was it planned. Allie and I spent weeks discussing moving in together and taking our relationship to another level. This being said we did start discussing getting married so that we could move in together. I started looking for jobs in Louisiana so that we could start working towards this. As time passed and it was becoming more and more obvious that it was only a matter of time before we would be engaged, I started talking to Allie about the type of ring she would want. She had the bright idea of going ring shopping together. We had plans to go to Garvin Gardens in Hot Springs to see the Christmas lights. We left early that day to stop by a few jewelry stores so that we could “look”. We ended up at this smaller store looking at rings. Allie had tried on a few already and then they brought out this one that just made her light up with happiness. I knew that was the ring for her. So before we left it was bought. However it had to be shipped off to be resized. We went on about our evening going to the gardens and seeing the lights and having a wonderful time. Weeks later the ring came in and Allie was so excited, but the size was still not right. So we had it resized again. Allie loved how it sat on her hand the second time around. But I wanted to try and do something special for the proposal. So we waited and waited. The timing of everything didn’t really work out. Every time I tried to plan something special it just didn’t seem to work out. So one morning before Allie was heading off to work I asked her in the kitchen. While I was still in my sleep shirt and shorts. It’s not about being over the top or extra when it’s with someone you love. All moments are special and cherish-able to us.