Rachael and Hunter met in Spanish class at Westlake High School when Rachael was a sophomore and Hunter was a junior. Though their friend groups did not overlap greatly, they ended up in the same homecoming group that year. They enjoyed each other’s company, but they were both dating other people at that time. They really didn’t keep in touch after the year ended and can thank Facebook for getting them back in touch toward the end of college. After becoming Facebook friends, they would catch up every couple years or so, always saying they should get together. Finally, Hunter texted Rachael, “Merry Christmas,” in 2019. Making friendly conversation, Rachael asked about his New Years Eve plans. Hunter said that he was going to the Ghostland Observatory concert at ACL Live, and Rachael exclaimed that she had wanted to go to it for Halloween but couldn’t find any friends who were interested. Since his friend from Colorado had cancelled (the friend who later helped with the proposal), he had an extra ticket and invited her to join. It had been 16 years since they had seen each other. At her parents’ advice, Rachael accepted with the motto that it would either be great or make a great story. The rest was history. They spent the first 2.5 months going to concerts nearly every weekend and were thankful they had when the COVID lockdown hit. As so many couples did, they quickly grew closer during quarantine.

In March of 2021, Hunter and Rachael went on what would become the engagement moon. The trip had a bit of a rocky start, with Rachael being exhausted on day 1 after her 12 days of work and getting up at 4 AM to catch their flight and then Hunter getting altitude sickness on day 2. However, at breakfast on day 3, they decided they were both feeling good and that it would be a great day. Walking to the car, Rachael found a quarter on the ground, and Hunter said it was her lucky day. Along with Hunter’s friend Nick, they went skiing and boarding for a few hours. They had a sleigh ride and fancy dinner planned that evening. At Hunter’s insistence, they had to cut their day on the slopes short, so they would have time to shower and dress up before the sleigh ride. Rachael wanted to skip this to maximize boarding time and wear her ski clothes to stay warm. But, Hunter insisted she shower, dry her hair, put on make up, and dress up nicely. The horse-drawn sleigh ride through the mountains was magical. Partway through, the sleighs stopped, so everyone could get hot chocolate and cookies, listen to live music in the mountains, and take pictures. They took a lot of pictures before Hunter asked Nick to take a video of them “running” and holding hands (Hunter then took off skipping). After twirling Rachael, Hunter got down on one knee.