Alec and I were part of the same charity organization at the University of Florida. With the help of one of his friends, Alec rigged the pairings for the first team building social to ensure he was with me. We hit it off dressed as the dynamic duo shark boy and lava girl, and soon after went on our first date! In typical Alec fashion, no reservation was made and we had to go from one restaurant to the next asking for a table. Eventually a sports bar BBQ joint had seats and we settled in. Luckily for Alec, I cared more about the company than the food and we have been together ever since. (We regret to inform you that Alec still can not manage a reservation)

Amanda once told me, “The only thing I care about for our proposal is that I can celebrate afterwards surrounded by my family”. I took that as meaning, “Do not propose until you can get my whole family together”. Between graduate school and the beginning of covid, the odds of planning a Marr family bash seemed to be slipping away. Then out of nowhere the Marr’s invited us to a family vacation to celebrate Lauren’s birthday. Knowing this might be my only shot, I reached out to Lauren who so graciously allowed me to steal some of her birthday weekend thunder. Under the guise of helping out a friend with various chores, I started going to the jeweler to design a ring that I hoped Amanda would love. Everything was going as planned until the jeweler called me as I was sitting next to Amanda, in the hopes of saving the surprise I fibbed and told her I had set up a consultation time for us to go in a couple of weeks. Days before we were set to leave, the ring was overnighted to Jacksonville and the plan was set in motion. Every day of the vacation I sat and thought to myself today is the day, the phrase did not end up being true until the second-to-last day. With the worst weather of the entire week, I tried convincing Amanda that it would be nice to get some family pictures. She grudgingly agreed and when we got down to the beach I kept holding off as I hoped the storm clouds would clear. Realizing my chance was slipping away, I asked her to dance by the water so that we could get some more natural pictures. With a beautiful speech in my head I got down on one knee and blurted out, “Will…will you marry me?” I soon forgot my embarrassment as Amanda managed to blurt out a “YES”! The sky was cloudy, wind was whipping, and the pictures were mostly unusable. But, surrounded by family in celebration afterwards made it one of the best days of my life and made all the wait worth it.