It all started with a highschool pool party, you know the ones where it's the guys at one end of the pool and girls at the other. Jace and Annabelle's story started in April 2015 at a mutual friends birthday party. Annabelle was the odd one out because everyone else in attendance was a Xavier/Brophy kid and she was the Arcadia kid here to crash the party. Jace and Annabelle talked quite a bit that day, but Jace says Annabelle told him she had a boyfriend at the time (Annabelle does not recall this, but guess it could've been a ploy). Jace will say he had a crush on Annabelle from that day on. Annabelle saw him a few more times after that before they graduated but it was always in group settings. In 2016 everyone graduated and went off to college and the friend group slowly dissipated. Fast forward to 2019, Annabelle in her second year of nursing school, had a roommate newly in a relationship, the roommate was pushing Annabelle to go on dating apps and find a date so they could double date. Annabelle hated dating apps but reluctantly went on them anyway. After a few horrendous dates, Annabelle came upon Jace one day, of course knowing who he was, she immediately messaged him "Jace Rileyyyy!!!". To Annabelle's luck, Jace messaged back and they quickly caught up on their current life status. Jace was in the middle of finals for his first semester of Law School and Annabelle getting ready for year two of Nursing school finals. One of the first things Jace told Annabelle was "If I go dark, I'm not ghosting you, I'm just focused on finals". The first date was a movie night at Annabelles house, where Jace had Annabelle rent Midsommar (if you don't know what that is, let me tell you, it is not an ideal first date movie). From there, it was meant to be, lots of dates, laughs, adventures, two years of renting, their first house, two dogs and three and a half years later, they're ready to tie the knot!

It was about a week and a half before Annabelle's Birthday. A friend of hers texted asking her to go to dinner on Wednesday April 19th for a birthday dinner celebration. Annabelle knew this friend would be out of town for the planned birthday celebration so it made sense. The night before Annabelle had texted her friend about details for the next day, her friend let her know she was sick and would not be able to attend. Jace could tell Annabelle was sad about the plans being canceled and seized his opportunity to make it a date night (little did Annabelle know, this was his plan all along). Jace told Annabelle he had something he had been wanting to do for a while but we had to dress up for it because it had some good photo ops. Jace picked out a white dress and heels for Annabelle to wear. The next afternoon, they got in the car and Jace drove them to the Botanical Gardens, Annabelle was upset because she knew the Botanical gardens was dirt and she was in heels so she. Jace brushed it off and made her feel more comfortable (as he always does). They got out and went into the restaurant for a drink together. Then they walked around the gardens a bit, at one point Jace made them turn around, then he led her into a small area where a blanket, flowers and champagne were sitting. Annabelle froze and Jace had to drag her in. Jace got down on one knee and popped the big question as the moment was all being captured. Later, Jace would not let Annabelle call or tell anyone. Jace took her to dinner at dough bird and then he drove them to her parent's house to go show them. Much to Annabelle's surprise, when she walked in she was greeted with the smiling faces of her family and Jace's along with many friends from near and far. Jace had successfully pulled off two amazing surprises in one amazing evening.