Our story starts on July 15, 2018. I was a young kid that found myself traveling with my church across the north and east side of the U.S visiting different branch churches. Our first week out took us to cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia, and even New York! The following week would be spent exclusively in Florida visiting three churches across the state. Little did I know, I would meet the love of my life in the small city of High Springs, exactly 844 miles away. Driving into the church, I remember all of the guys getting out of the van, stretching, and immediately ushered into a room to change into dress clothes. We were going to have a service that very hour, so equipment had to be unloaded and placed inside to get it underway fast. I found myself up in the audio room working on the equipment for our radio streaming, and little did I know that the girl right beside me would be my future wife! Due to the rushed timing we had, I was super focused on having everything working throughout the service. I didn't even have a chair since there was very little space, but I didn't mind since the service wasn't going to take that long. I'm not sure if my shirt was even tucked, but I know my sense of style was nothing special or eye catching. What I did know was that allyson and her friend were working on the visuals of the service, which is what placed her in my path that night. Out of the blue, (and what I later found out turned out to be a dare from her friend) Allyson then turned to me and asked me the most bizarre question: "can I draw something on your hand?" I was completely taken aback and shocked, as you can imagine, but I smiled and in confusion said "um yeah sure..." She grabbed hold of it, and with a black pen, she drew a small heart on my right hand. I had no idea what to think of the situation, only that my head was getting hot as I was embarrassed at what just happened. I remember her saying thank you and going back with her friend to giggle and talk and I was just left there pretty stunned. As much as I didn't know what just happened, I decided I wanted to get to know her more and talk to her with the few days we were there for. The next day involved us having some activities with the church in the morning, and there she was again. This time, I wanted to try and talk to her to know who she was (since I didn't even know her name!) What I did find out was that everyone called her Michelle (her middle name), and that she was pretty shy. Considering that I was someone who she had never seen or known before last night, I would say that was good progress so far. The day moved along with us visiting a nearby springs area. After some unimpressive flips and dives into the water, it was time to head back and get ready for some night activities. I knew this was my last chance to talk with her since we would be heading out the very next morning. Throughout the activities, I would try to get her involved by saying she should write things down with her much better handwriting. After some final presentations and activities, it was time to leave, and I had not gotten any closer. In this moment, I decided that I just had to do something. I couldn't leave this place with just knowing how she looked like and some small talk here and there. She was surrounded by two of her friends, but I didn't care how it would look. I had no idea where this sudden burst of confidence came from, but I found myself asking her, "hey, do you have an Instagram or something?" That's right. I didn't ask for her phone number, I asked for her Instagram. Fortunately, she was able to put her username into my phone, although I can imagine how embarrassed she must have felt. I felt it too, but I knew that it would haunt me if I did not find some way to talk with her after leaving, and I am so glad that I did. We spent the night texting each other and getting to know one another. The rest of the trip provided the same, and this was the start of a very long story...

Even before we started dating, we knew that long distance relationships can be difficult. We would both have our lives in different states with different responsibilities, and sometimes that would put us to the test. Even now, writing these stories have all been while we are separated miles apart. However, we would always look forward to one day: the day of when we could be married. I knew that Allyson was the one for me. We would constantly talk to each other on the phone, through text, just through everything. Communication with each other was always key because we couldn't physically see each other. We would make time for our facetime calls to see each other, watch shows together, eat together, you name it. While the distance was tough on us, I believe the love we showed each other grew stronger as time went on. Through our constant communication, it always felt like we just knew everything about each other. Eventually, we would begin planning trips to visit each other. At first, they would be trips to each other's state and spend a weekend here, some days there, and eventually for weeks at a time. We would try to time them to be at least every other month so that we would always have something to look forward to and to fight the loneliness that we would both feel. However, every time we would see each other, the end result would be the same: tears and so much sadness at the airport when it was finally time to leave. It would hurt so much having to walk away from each other, knowing that in a few hours we wouldn't be able to just wake up and say good morning to each other. We would be going back to our daily lives without each other and having to face the fact that the next time we met again would be a month or two away. Through all the family vacations together, we grew closer and closer to one another that it felt like we couldn't ever be without each other. Our lives truly were destined for each other, and I felt that I wanted to make that dream come true. As a result, I wanted to make the day we got engaged a special one. When I first met Allyson, one of the things she would often do is send a snap at exactly 11:11 for streaks with the caption "make a wish." I didn't really know this was a thing that some people do or say, but as the years went by and we started dating, I always had this in the back of my head. She has always been my wish, so why not apply these significant numbers on when I pop the question? As it turns out, the way I decided to do this would be to ask the love of my life, Allyson, to marry me exactly 1111 days after we started dating. Since we started on March 17th, 2021, 1111 days later fell exactly on April 1st, 2025. Not exactly ideal with the timing being April Fool's, but to me, I knew exactly how important this day would be. The decision of this day happened early on when we started dating, so I had some years to fully prepare for that day... Fast forwarding the clock to the start of 2025, I was starting to get a bit nervous on how I would be able to pull this off. It was one thing surprising Allyson at her house to spend time with her, but to ask her to marry me without her knowing? This was going to be near impossible! We always spend so much time with each other calling, seeing each other, and even sharing locations, but I knew I just had to surprise her. Any question, such as asking for her to get her nails done, I felt would be a dead giveaway of what was to come. I tried to think of ways to get her to visit with her family, but the timing would clash with her classes and she wouldn't be able to take time off for extended vacation. There was no way to plan for this years in advance, and now that the time was dwindling it was feeling harder to truly plan a surprise. I knew that I would have to go over to Florida to ask the question, but where would it be special enough to ask the question?

How would I be able to have her ready and dressed up for such an occasion without arising suspicion? Theoretically, she should know nothing about me being there since we hadn't planned any time for me being there. The timing of this day was proving to be trickier because of her not having any vacation and me having work, so this was starting to look like tougher by the minute. However, when you are least expecting it, a miracle can fall perfectly into place. Through various calls with her family and brother, we were able to hatch a solid plan: I would drive up to Florida after work with my mom and through the night to make it to Florida on April 1st. Once I made it to High Springs, I would then make my way to St. Augustine, the location we started dating at. Looking around the area, I tried finding a place to ask the question, somewhere that looked and felt perfect. Talking to my manager at the time, I found out that the lighthouse they have there has a gorgeous view of the city and beach side, so maybe there was something there. It felt like the very light from the lighthouse went off, because once I checked online, I found out that booking the lighthouse for 30 minutes after hours was available for a proposal. I quickly took this opportunity and built on it, buying many electronic candles and lights to add on the steps leading to the top of the lighthouse. I felt that the view of the entire city would be the main spectacle for my proposal with me waiting at the top for her. Additionally, the plan I made with her brother, Michael, felt perfect: he would call her to come visit him and his friend, Sage, to have some dinner at a nice restaurant. They do gig work and music in the evenings, so he would make it seem that Sage and her family wanted to have dinner with Allyson's family at a place while they performed. To get her to the top of the lighthouse, Michael would claim that they were taking pictures at the top as part of a social media post/promotion, which would explain being there before dinner. Everything was falling into place, everything was feeling perfect and that it would be the most amazing surprise ever. Of course, when everything feels that it will work perfectly, it means that there has to be something that takes over and starts to mess up the plan... The day I left from Texas, I had to put a couple of things in motion. I had to stretch the truth and lie a bit for this to work. I promise this is not representative of me and things that I do, but it was the only way for this to work without setting off any alarms. The first thing to do was set my location to be on my ipad in Texas. I left it at my office and just would fill as a stationary location to allow little suspicion of me traveling to Florida in case it were checked. Next, I established what I would be doing for the rest of the evening: I said that I would be working out with my friend Frank and that we were going to play volleyball afterwards. This was important because I knew that me and Allyson almost always call at night to sleep with each other. However, for just this evening, I needed her to absolutely call or text much as I would be driving and just hearing me in the car would blow thew whole operation up. I decided to text her sparsely and in long periods, as if I were playing volleyball sets. This of course, was not what I would normally do since I love to text her and let her know what things are going on. As the night went on, it seemed apparent to her that I was mostly choosing this over her, and she promptly went to sleep without me feeling a bit upset at my behavior. I really felt bad about it all because I did want to be with her, but it had to be done for a greater good, I thought. I needed this to be completely a secret because little did she know, she would be a fiancé this time tomorrow! The night went by and I made it to High Springs with my mom while she was at her class during the day.

We then promptly rushed to St Augustine to meet up with Michael at his apartment. From here, I rushed to get ready and work on setting up some of the electronic candles from my car. I had gotten news from Allyson that she was getting ready for something in St Augustine with Sage and her family, so I knew that the plan was working. She didn't seem to have set off any alarms or even suspect me of being in Florida. This was working out as good as I could have hoped for. However, the timing was starting to get tight since I had to wait for the normal hours to close from the St Augustine Lighthouse. The staff in there were very friendly and willing to work with me, but I knew that there would be a small time frame from me being there and when she would arrive. As I mentioned before, when things feel like they are going well, one major event can cause it all to start toppling down. As I started laying down candles at the floor of the stairs, it started to slightly rain with the clouds forming in the sky. It wasn't a terrible downpour, but there was one issue: lightning. The thunder rang through the sky, and this meant that the lighthouse needed to be closed down for at least 30 minutes with no interruption of thunder again. This was bad because Allyson and her family were just arriving at the lobby of the lighthouse, and I did not have a location anymore. Fortunately, the staff were very accommodating and quick on their feet. One of them radioed the other in the lobby to keep them occupied while we set up in the courtyard in front of the light house. Not as ideal, but I could not spoil the surprise now. I got help to set up the candles in front of the courtyard, which overall looked very pretty as it was. Once we had set up enough candles, I moved out of sight before the go ahead was given to Allyson's family to walk outside. As I was waiting, I could hear the voice of my soon to be fiancé talking with her family, and I knew that my time was here. I was starting to feel sweaty in my hands and feel butterflies in my stomach. I knew that I absolutely wanted to do this - I was just nervous at how it would turn out. Would I mess up my speech and stutter with my words? Would I kneel down on my wrong knee? I knew that time was running out and that I had to make my next move. Looking one more time at what I wrote to help guide my thoughts and sentences, I set it aside and walked towards her with the ring in my pocket. She was still oblivious as to why I was there and did not see me until I was right behind her. It all felt like a dream as I walked right up to her and announced myself. She was entirely shocked at what was going on right before her eyes. Was this real? Was I actually there in front of her? How was I even there? She started thinking and putting it all together and asked, "is this an engagement?" With tears in both of our eyes, I said yes and was so happy to have finally reached this point. I started saying everything that I had written and everything that I could think of: how I had envisioned this day from the very beginning, how I planned all of this to be on this specific day, how I felt so entirely loved and completed with her in my life. It was certainly a lot to get through, and with a lot of crying and hugging later, I finally got down on my knee and asked her the question, "will you marry me?" With her saying yes and us giving each other so many hugs, we were able to turn and celebrate with our families. Not only that, we were given permission to climb to the top of the light house and enjoy the amazing views of the city. I was extremely grateful for the entire help of the staff and for allowing us to enjoy the full extent of the plan. Taking several photos and enjoying the moment together, it was finally time to enjoy dinner and talk about everything that was planned up to this point. I loved every single moment of our engagement, and I am so happy to finally be marrying the love of my life!