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I began working as a server at a small local restaurant, the Weather Vane, in June of 2018. I loved the atmosphere, owners, and staff and quickly went from it being my second job to my only job. After a couple months of busyness, the owner, Nate, let me know that his son (pssst, that's Tyler ;) ) was going to be joining our team as a busser/host/food runner/do-it-all-man and asked me to show him the ropes the next day. I agreed and honestly thought nothing of it. Now, anyone that knows me knows that I was always quick to do the Boyfriend Evaluation of all guys. Like, ALL. THE. TIME. So, I was making an effort to not view guys as potential mates, but as just people. So, when I met Tyler the next day, I thought absolutely nothing of him. (Sorry, honey!) In the weeks following, I realized that I liked Tyler... as a coworker. He was a great guy; cool, calm, and collected under pressure and always willing to help out when we asked him to. Then one day, it happened. It was a slow afternoon at the restaurant and Tyler and I were talking, getting to know each other a bit. He then took a serious tone as he said, "You know, I'm really grateful for my friends. They're the best. I had a bad addiction... to the Hokey Pokey and they helped me turn myself around." Y'all. When I say I lost it, I lost it. After I calmed myself down, I realized that no guy had ever made me laugh so hard in my life and how much I wanted that in my future husband. Uh oh... I was starting to catch feelings. I immediately texted my best friend "Help! Please convince me to not like my boss's son!" After she calmed me down and told me it may not be as big of a deal as I was making it out to be, I decided I would allow myself to like him, but not say anything.

Scenario 1: There was one day that I worked at the restaurant during lunch and had the evening off. I returned to the restaurant later that evening with some hand-picked apples from my parents' house for Nate to experiment with and decided to stay and join some of our regular customers for dinner. After a while, I noticed Tyler was off work and sitting at a table by himself, eating his dinner. There was a spot next to me available and I asked him if he wanted to join us. He said "sure" and we sat and talked the rest of the evening. Scenario 2: Tyler and I were working a dinner shift together one night and Tyler got off work before I did. I was planning on eating my dinner at the restaurant that night, so when he asked "would you like to sit and have dinner with me?" I responded "yeah, I was already planning on it!" with such confidence that it surprised him. But I didn't realize he said "with me" until after I responded.. So then I just sounded like I was very much planning on eating with him before he even asked.

We planned a trip to Eau Claire, Wisconsin for Tyler's grandma's wedding (shout out to Angie and Bill). His grandma just so happened to be getting married on our one year dating anniversary! Him, his mom, brother and I were going to arrive the day before and spend the weekend there, celebrating with his family. We had been talking about getting married and I knew we wanted to get engaged soon. I was hoping he'd pop the question soon and I thought that day of first anniversary together would've been perfect as long as he didn't try to upstage his grandma's wedding. I'd be petrified having that many eyes on me. I tried to talk myself down to not get my hopes up in case it didn't happen that weekend... but I decided to get my nails done, just in case ;) Turns out, I made a good choice. On October 4th, 2019, the day before our first anniversary, I presented my (measly) gifts to Tyler, not expecting him to have even thought to get me anything. Then his mom said, "Alright! Now it's Bri's turn!" My turn? I looked at Tyler, confused. "Wait, you got me something?" "I did, actually." Then, in front of his uncles, aunt, grandpa, brother, and mom, he asked me to marry him. He totally surprised me (even though I was hoping it'd happen this weekend). I must have asked, "Are you serious??" a million times, feeling like there was no way I just got engaged to the man that I could never have dreamed I'd be with. Get ready guys, I'm gonna get mushy and this is your warning. Tyler, thank you for being everything that I never knew I needed. You're the best and I love you so much and can't wait to marry you on June 27th, 2020. I can't wait to become a "we" this year. <3