Cadence and I had known each other for a couple of years through our church’s young adults group. We were friends, but nothing more than people who would see each other every now and then and have casual conversations. In the summer of 2022, we had gotten to know each other better through hanging out with our friends Jake and Katie. We liked spending time at each others’ houses, having movie nights, and going out to dinner or ice cream. I honestly always had an interest in her from years before, but I had just gotten a hint of interest from her during that summer and that’s all I needed to get the confidence to go for it. So, I asked her out on a date one night. Our first date was to the movies and we both had an awesome time. I knew pretty much immediately that I wanted to get more serious with her, and after about a week of hanging out I asked her to be my girlfriend and she said yes! I was so excited and couldn’t believe how lucky I was.

I had bought the engagement ring and wedding band for Cadence around 6 months before I proposed from a custom company oversees. They told me the rings would take around 6 months for me to actually get the rings and I prepared myself for the long wait. The funny thing is, I didn’t end up getting them until the day before I actually ended up proposing! I was so relieved when I got them, because that meant that I could go through with my plan of proposing to my favorite person in the whole world exactly how I wanted to. Earlier in the summer we’d planned on going to this event called the Detroit Water Lantern Festival as like a fun little date night out. The weekend we were supposed to go was postponed till 2 weeks after. Perfect enough, I could use those two weeks to receive the rings and then propose to her on that day. Well, as you know the rings didn’t make it to me until the night before, so I was truly sweating hoping they would make it in time. The day comes and I am nervous with the ring ready and hoping that everything goes to plan. We made it to the event, and so many people were there it was hard to find a spot in this field next to a lake to sit and wait for the sun to set. When it came time to set out the lanterns we decorated, we went up to the lake and put our lanterns in the water. As we were admiring everyone’s lanterns lit up in the water around us, I went onto one knee and looked up at Cadence and asked her to marry me. Her eyes teared up and she said yes to being my wife!