Austin and Brighten met in 2014. If you knew Austin and Brighten then, you probably knew, every weekend it was some sort of gathering or bonfire that they just HAD to make it to. The couple had met a couple times in passing, end up following each other on instagram like an other modern day love story, and it was history from there. Almost every weekend Austin, Brighten, and their friends started to go to these gatherings together. Brighten had no clue Austin was crushing the whole entire time ;)

They made it official. Brighten and Austin spent the whole summer hanging out and falling in love with absolutely no clue what would come out of it.

Brighten and Austin get their first apartment together. Growing up is hard, but doing it together made life fun.

At this point, friend groups have merged, they add a new member to the family (Axel boy), and they create hobbies together. Their weekends consist RZR riding, camping, CDA lake trips, and always finding new restaurants. Despite Austin being out of town most of the weekdays, they still manage to make the most out of any time that they had together.

Big things happened in these years, buying a house, Brighten gets her dream job, moving to a new town, etc. Brighten and Austin laid low for a lot of this time enjoying being homeowners and spent a lot of time with family. I think this is when Brighten starts to wonder where her ring is at, idk I’m just guessing.

The couple is about to head to Italy for a family vacation. Brighten had been almost sure a couple times that an engagement would happen so she didn’t want to hype this feeling up too much. On their anniversary, Austin had gifted Brighten a pair of diamond earrings. Brighten thought “Why would he buy diamond earrings AND a ring? No way.” Of course, she as excited about her new jewelry but Brightens dreams of being engaged in Italy were kind of crushed, little did she know it was all a part of the plan.

Austin had booked a private boat tour for the day to see the Amalfi coast together. This whole trip and time Brighten had a roller coaster of “Omg it’s happening, omg… it’s not…” regardless, they both were so excited for this boat ride. It was the most beautiful day spent touring the different towns with a view from the water. Ok i have to switch from third person for now because I need to tell you how QUIET Austin was on this boat tour, I think i did all the talking to our sweet boat driver Lorenzo. I was like something is up… He also brought NOTHING with him so I thought, no way there’s a ring with him right now. I still had such a great time but let me just say, Austin really did a great job at keeping me on my toes lol. As they are finishing up their boat tour and arriving back into the beautifully colored town of Positano, the tour guide tells them how great of a spot it would be for a photo and offers to take it. This is when HE FINALLY DID IT! Brighten and Austin get engaged, it was everything and more either of them could have ever dreamed of.

So here we are, 10 and 1/2 years later feeling like the luckiest people on earth, and as I am writing this I am sitting here imagining the day we get to spend with all of our friends and loved ones and seriously cannot wait any longer!