One fateful day, our sisters were playing against each other in a high school soccer game. It was also the day of Samantha's graduation from Calvin College, so she was not present. However, Samuel was at the game cheering his sister on. Our grandparents were both at the game and they sat next to each other because they knew each other from the Kalamazoo Christian schools. The sky was grey and it looked like it was going to rain. Being the gentleman that he is, Samuel asked his grandma if she would like him to get her an umbrella from the car. Samantha's grandparents noticed this kindness and asked if he was single because they had a granddaughter who "miraculously graduated from Calvin today without a boyfriend." The grandparents were excited. They both had single grandchildren named Sam! They quickly got to trying to set them up. Samantha's mother overheard this conversation and she also wanted to set up the Sams. She took a picture of the back of Samuel's head and sent it to her daughter with the caption "Do you want to date him?" Samantha was incredibly confused, but also intrigued (the back of his head was cute). Anyway, after the soccer game ended Samuel's sister ran and gave his number to Samantha's mother. Later that day, the number was handed over to Samantha and she was (for some strange reason) in charge of making the first move. She waited over 24 hours before texting him. The text was extremely hard to type out and it was incredibly awkward. It read "Hey! This is Sam Beebe! I heard my grandparents and your grandparents are trying to set us up? They apparently met at the soccer game yesterday and talked a lot. Haha I am unsure, but they told me I had to at least text and say hi. So hi! haha sorry if this is weird!" Samuel actually responded and he was very happy to have received a text from Samantha. A few days later they went on a date and Samuel claims that he knew he was going to marry Samantha the moment she walked out the door. The rest is history!

Samantha and Samuel's anniversary was coming up and Samantha started getting suspicious that he was going to propose that day. However, Samuel threw her off the scent by having her family get involved in order to distract her. His plan was to have Samantha's family take her out to dinner and drinks until midnight so that he could propose on their anniversary. Samantha got home at midnight and Samuel was standing under the gazebo with string lights, flowers, candles, lanterns, photos and a few songs were playing that were special to their relationship. It was such an amazing proposal because Samuel got Samantha's family involved and because he ended up surprising her at midnight on their anniversary. It was so personal and magical. Samuel did an amazing job!