One hot Thursday evening on a soccer field at South County Park in Punta Gorda a group of friends played Ultimate Frisbee. Sierra a long standing member of the group, and Brian the newcomer first met. Introductions were made and names were promptly forgotten, thus our names for each other were coined, "Publix" and "Cute Ultimate Girl". Over the course of the next year we grew closer while still struggling with each others ACTUAL names. It got to the point where it was awkward to ask each others names after hanging out with each other weekly for 6 months. Eventually another newcomer came around and introductions were made and names were ACTUALLY remembered this time around. Fast forward a few months and sitting on the sea wall in Gilcrest park celebrating July 4th, and Brian knew this "Cute Ultimate Girl" was someone special that he wanted to spend more time with. Sierra on the other hand had been dropping hints for a while now thinking he was not interested, when in reality he was just oblivious. It took Hurricane Milton for him to start talking to her about things that weren't frisbee, finally confessing that he had feeling for her.

FINALLY on a Thursday night after Frisbee in Mid November we went on our first unofficial date. We went to get ice cream at Gigi's and strolled through the park side by side holding hands and talking about anything and everything. Just happy to be together. Brian, who was still working as a manager for Publix in Cape Coral at the time, had to be to work the next day at 4am was finally talked into going home so he could get some much needed sleep before his shift. He did go home, however, he proceeded to text Sierra through the night until his early shift the next morning, forfeiting any possible sleep before his shift. It had begun, we couldn't stop talking and we knew this was something special. On November 22nd we went on our first official date, an Everblades hockey game where at the end of the night he asked Sierra to be his girlfriend. She obviously agreed...

As we grew closer together we started having talks about the future and both of us realizing that we couldn't stand being apart and wanted this to last forever. We went ring shopping to get an idea of what Sierra liked and would want on her finger for the rest of her life. Brian found the perfect ring and had planned on popping the question in 2 months, on our anniversary. But love had other plans. Almost as soon as the ring arrived it felt like it was burning a hole in his pocket, trying to hide it and not let on. We went on a nice picnic in Gilcrest Park at sunset, we met some very friendly dogs who tried to crash our picnic and we watched the sun set on a beautiful evening. Well, we tried to... After we cleaned up from the picnic we sat on the seawall overlooking the harbor, the same place where Brian first knew he wanted to be with her. Nervously stammering he eventually said, "Sierra, I have a very important question for you. You know I love you very much, and this is the first place I knew I wanted to be with you." He struggles getting the ring out of his pocket and got down on one knee and asked the most important question of both of their lives. "Sierra Mearns, Will you marry me?" Almost before he had even finished speaking she excited said, "Yes!" and once the ring was secured in its forever home a wonderful couple walking by saw our moment and offered to take some pictures for us. We don't know who you are or if we'll ever see you again but thank you kind strangers. After sitting and enjoying the moment we started making the phone calls and letting our family know. We left the park before the sun had even set because we were so excited to share it with our families that we had even forgotten about why we were at the park in the first place.

Check out our registry on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/wedding/guest-view/2P7Q19Y6U4YJ3