WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!

In January of 2017, I was riding in the car with my mom just casually scrolling through Instragram. At that exact moment, Austin had posted a picture and his location was Positano, Italy. I looked at my mom and while showing her Austin's picture I said "Do you think he's cute?" and she replied "Yes! You should message him!" At first I was so against it! I thought "no way! I don't want to make the first move." Well needless to say, she talked me into it! I messaged him all about Italy and how I've always wanted to travel to Positano. About two weeks later we went on our first date and realized we had several mutual friends, attended the same church group, had gone to the same campus events, all while never running into each other. After about three dates full of long conversations, romantic dinners, lots of wine and laughter, Austin finally told me that he's never even been to Italy! He was just posting pictures with locations of where he aspired to adventure to. I started laughing and was a tad embarrassed.. but till this day he still says "it was the best lie I ever told." Gods timing is impeccable. All throughout our college careers we were right beside each other and we didn't even know it. If it weren't for every little detail being perfectly aligned according to His timing, we wouldn't share the love story that we do today.

The day Austin told me that he loved me for the very first time is one that we will never forget. It was July 14, 2017 and I was anxiously awaiting at my apartment in Kennesaw, GA. I didn't know any of the details that he had planned for that day, I was just told to get ready! He picked me up and we drove to an airport where there was a 1920s classic bi-plane waiting for us! We flew over all of Atlanta and it was one of the most beautiful experiences I've ever had! After our plane ride, he took me to a nice restaurant on the Chattahoochee River called Canoe, where we enjoyed an extremely delicious dinner. At this point, I'm thinking we are headed home after dinner- but wait! There's more! This man has really thought of everything! He then takes me to a beautiful rooftop bar in Buckhead. We are sitting there together, enjoying our cocktails on the roof, and he grabs my hand. He looks me in eyes and says "Meaghan, it's been a long time coming. But I love you, and I'm so in love with you."

It was September of 2019 and my sister had been begging me for weeks to have a double date night. She wanted to get all dolled up and go to a really nice dinner with drinks in the city. She came home from work one night and nonchalantly asked me if Austin and I wanted to go out that Saturday night. A few days go by and then she asked me if we could also go to Piedmont Park before dinner so I could take some nice pictures of her and her boyfriend for their upcoming anniversary. Without questioning it, of course I said yes! As Thursday rolls around, Austin proceeds to tell me that he has this really important business deal that he has been working on, but his investors could only meet on Saturday afternoon. He told me that he wouldn't be able to go to Piedmont Park with us, but that he would meet us afterwards at the restaurant. At this point, I'm still not even questioning it! In fact, I never questioned any of it at all! Saturday afternoon rolls around and I ride down to Piedmont Park with my sister and her boyfriend. We're walking around the park and I am looking for beautiful spots to take pictures of them. We walk around a corner, and to my surprise, Austin is standing there waiting for me. He walks up to me, grabs my hand, and leads me to a gorgeous view of the city where he has pictures of us, roses, and candles lit everywhere. At this moment, my heart starts racing because I knew exactly what was about to happen! I started smiling from ear to ear- seriously the biggest grin I've ever had in my entire life! I was so shocked and so stunned at what was happening, I don't even remember his grandiose speech! He then gets down on one knee, looks me in my eyes and asks me to marry him!! With tears in my eyes, with the biggest smile on my face, I said the easiest "yes" of my entire life!