Who would have thought that when my cousin Tommy decided to bring two of his friends to my 13th birthday party I would be meeting my future husband? That is where Zach and I first met and we really hit it off, as much as 13 year olds can. We even became "boyfriend and girlfriend" the very next day, that’s how serious it was. This all happened during the time of AIM and prepaid cell phones. We dated off and on through our sophomore year of high school before we both decided to go our own way. Fast forward a few years later to our freshmen year of college. Brady, Zach’s twin brother and I were good friends while attending the University of Iowa. I saw Zach at a party that fall and began running into Zach more often while hanging out with Brady. That eventually turned into running into Brady while hanging out with Zach. We officially became boyfriend and girlfriend “again” on February 11th, 2012.

It all started when we booked our vacation to the Dominican Republic right after Christmas of 2016. I had been thinking about proposing to Alexis for some time but I really wanted to make it special. The trip to the Dominican was the special thing I was looking for. The trip was planned for the end of April, so I had about four months to find the ring and plan the proposal. Of course, I had to find the ring first. If anyone knows me, it would not surprise you to find out that I went to many different stores, did hours of research, and asked many people many different questions. After a little time on February 4th, days before our 5th anniversary I found the perfect ring for Alexis. With all of the plans for our trip in place, Alexis and I headed off to the Dominican Republic on Sunday, April 23rd. I did not have any plans set in stone for the proposal before we arrived but once I got down there I was able to sneak away from Alexis and talk to some of the employees at the resort to get everything in place. Throughout the vacation Alexis and I had been going to a private part of the resort and we made it “our" spot. In the early morning of Thursday, April 27th I couldn't sleep. My excitement and nerves were getting the best of me. We both finally got up and enjoyed the beach and some morning sun. We then got beach front massages and spent the rest of the day relaxing. Come evening time, I told Alexis I wanted to watch the sunset. So we headed off to "our" spot. Once we got there I told Alexis I loved her and wanted to spend the rest of my life with her so I got down on one knee and I popped the big question… "Will you marry me?" Without any hesitation Alexis said, "Yes!" and the rest is history....

We would love it if you checked out our love story video: https://vimeo.com/276461371