When I moved to Mississippi at the end of September, I already had Hinge downloaded on my phone from way before. I wasn't planning on meeting someone immediately after I had moved, but I checked my phone one night to see that a cute guy named Tyler had liked me. I clicked through his profile, and he checked all my "boxes" of what I had been looking for: Christian, Conservative, and looked like a lot of fun! His profile said he was looking for "someone to enjoy life with! Positivity, adventurous and fun loving." I did something I never do... I sent a message first. I said "If you're looking for someone adventurous and fun loving, look no further". I guess it worked! We went to Cazadores 2 weeks later on October 11th and talked so much we forgot to eat our queso. We were there so long that before we knew it, the servers were putting chairs on tables and were about to close. At one point, he went to the bathroom, and I texted my mom "I think I just met my husband."

I’d been going back and forth on how to propose to Madi for a while. I knew she had an inkling that something was in the works, so I wanted to make sure the moment was still a big surprise. After some brainstorming with my family, I landed on a restaurant proposal. Koestler Prime was the perfect choice - I had always wanted to take her there. Her mom, Ms. Traci, was scheduled to be in town the weekend of August 1st, so I planned everything around that. I looped in my family and hers to make sure everyone was onboard. The plan was simple: the four of us (Madi, Ms. Traci, my mom, and I) would go out for a nice dinner. But at the last minute, my mom and Ms. Traci would “back out,” leaving Madi and me with a surprise date night. We both dressed to the nines and headed to Koestler Prime. I had called ahead weeks in advance to coordinate with the staff. As soon as we arrived, I excused myself to “go to the restroom,” but instead handed the ring and a handwritten card to the hostess, who passed them along to our server. When dessert arrived, the server handed Madi the card. As she started to read the card, which said "Got my wish...you", the waitress slid me the ring. The final line of the card read: “Madi… Look up… Will you marry me?” At that moment, I was already down on one knee, ring in hand. She was so overwhelmed with emotion she could barely speak—but her reaction said it all. I slipped the ring onto her finger, and we finished our dinner floating on cloud nine. But the surprises weren’t over. We drove to my mom’s house to “show off the ring,” but instead pulled into the neighborhood clubhouse. When we walked in, Madi and I were greeted by a room full of our closest friends and family, all there to celebrate our engagement. It was the perfect ending to a perfect night.