... ours began on Hinge. We agreed to meet for tea and coffee (Carlyn: why no food?) at Frothy Monkey in Nashville. After surviving that first date and eating chips and cheese in her car afterwards, Carlyn somehow agreed to continue spending more time with Daniel. Not long after, a trivia night at Honeytree Meadery convinced Carlyn that maybe this relationship was worth taking a little more seriously. A few months later, Daniel traveled with Carlyn to visit her family in New Orleans for the first time. Over the course of the weekend and a few bowls of Carlyn's dad's gumbo, Daniel learned a few things: he enjoyed the city, he still had absolutely no spice tolerance whatsoever, and he really loved Carlyn and her people. After this first trip to New Orleans, our relationship only grew stronger. The months that followed were filled with date nights at local restaurants, shows in downtown Nashville, board games, and lots of time with Carlyn's two cats, Gypsy and Tusk. Carlyn also made it her mission to slowly but surely work through the embarrassingly long list of movies Daniel somehow managed to make it this far into adulthood without seeing. That fall, we took our first international trip together to Ireland with friends. Traveling abroad together brought us closer, and we came home even more sure of what we had found in each other. Daniel realized it might be time to start saving for an engagement ring. By December, Carlyn had a feeling a proposal was coming, but she had no idea when or how it would happen (Carlyn: sure...). After a few trips to local jewelers together, Daniel had a plan. On February 7, 2026, Daniel started the day by bringing Carlyn coffee in bed from the same Frothy Monkey where we had our first date (Carlyn: still no food... why?), followed by stops at some of our favorite places around Nashville. Carlyn jokingly asked Daniel why he seemed nervous, but Daniel played it off to the best of his ability. After those few initial stops, Daniel took them to Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park, where we had gone to the Southern Festival of Books on our second date. The weather was perfect, although Carlyn was confused about why we were walking through a farmer's market when nearly every booth was already closed for the day. Any confusion disappeared on the north side of the park, where Daniel asked Carlyn to marry him. The rest of the day was spent floating between favorite restaurants and bars, soaking it in, and texting and FaceTiming as many people as possible. It could not have gone more perfectly! We are so excited to celebrate our wedding in March 2027, and cannot wait to be surrounded by all of our favorite people. See you there!