Cally's version: Clayton and my brother both volunteer with the same organization and everyone went out after one of their Fall events. I joined my brother a little later on in the evening and Clayton charmed me with his accent and his endearing personality. Next thing you know we were the last two in the bar chatting the night away! It wasn't long after that we had out first of many dates. Clayton's version: Cally's brother and I both volunteer with our local Jaycee group. After an event in October, we all went to a bar to hang out. I had heard of Cally, but we had never met until that night when I spotted a beautiful lady across the bar. In a bar filled with people, she stood out like she was the only person there. I made my way to where she was sitting and I think my accent caught her attention. We introduced ourselves and spoke for about 15 minutes - or what felt like 15 minutes, but really ended up being over 3 hours. It felt as though I had known her my whole life which was a weird feeling, but I knew that we were onto something special; something that only comes around once in a lifetime.

I planned a trip to a little island in Maine called Deer Isle knowing that I wanted to propose somewhere special, but since we were in the middle of a pandemic, it would have to be a.) somewhere we could drive to and b.) somewhere remote enough that the COVID cases weren't out of control. I didn't tell Cally that I had planned the trip and got one of her friends to offer us the holiday because they had 'overbooked themselves'. As we were driving to where we were going to stay, things started looking a little too remote and I worried that the place we were staying at wouldn't live up to the photos on their website but when we got there we were in a private little cove with a beachfront cottage that exceeded my expectations. I had planned on proposing on a hike in Acadia National Park, but wanted to do it somewhere elevated where we would have a view. We ended up hiking 'the Beehive' and got about halfway up before it started getting a little too slippery for comfort. There was a moment where Cally was afraid to go over a makeshift metal walkway, but I asked her to trust me. She looked me in the eyes and crossed the path as though it was nothing. We found a good lookout spot where I took out a fake ring, started proposing then dropped it over the edge. A prank that was maybe poorly timed, but her response could not have been more perfect. She urged me to get away from the edge thinking I might go after the ring. She told me to forget the ring, that we didn't need it and to get away from the edge. In that moment all she cared about was my safety. I took out the real ring, took a knee and the rest is history. We spent the rest of the week drinking champagne, having picnics and enjoying our little seaside cottage.