~ Chelsee ~ It started with a book. East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I was reading it and wanted someone to discuss with—Clay happily obliged. The conversations quickly morphed from discussions about books and writing to deeper, longer talks about life, dreams and everything in between. I still remember the message that solidified our mutual feelings. We had talked for hours the night before and the next day, I got a message from him saying, “what kind of excuse do I need to come up with to keep talking to you?” In which I replied, “it’s funny, I was thinking the same thing.” Within a month - we were both smitten and planning out how we would meet in person. (I was living in England at the time and Clay was in Oklahoma) We arranged our first meet-up to be in San Francisco over Valentine’s Weekend. It was perfect! We spent the weekend exploring the city, celebrating our first Valentine’s Day together, and falling even more in love. From that first day, we knew we wanted to spend the rest of our days together and began our journey towards building a shared dream and beautiful life.

~ Clay ~ From the moment I fell in love with Chelsee, I knew that I wanted to marry her. She felt like home. She felt like forever. Fast forward a couple years to this past winter and I had designed a ring for her with the help of a local jeweler. She knew I was getting one made, but not when it would be actually finished. In my mind I wanted it to be romantic when I proposed and a complete surprise, so I started playing a long game. All throughout the months leading up to it, I quietly started hinting that the jewelers were bad at communicating with me or not giving me a good timeline on when their ring would be finished. All the while it was tucked away safely in the gun safe. This culminated at dinner on the night I proposed (Friday the 13th because Chelsee is spooky like that). We had taken a trip down to Austin, TX to celebrate Valentine’s Day. I made a comment along the lines of, “yeah, I’ll have to call the jewelers when we get back. They still haven’t got back to me about that ring. It should be finished by now.” She was visibly upset. Under the table I rubbed the ring that was in my pocket and smiled inside. Perfect. Hook, line, and sinker. Afterwards we went on a walk—across the river from downtown Austin. The skyline was lit up in beautiful colors and as Chelsee was working on getting the perfect picture I got down on one knee and waited for her to turn around. When she did, I started reciting this romantic spiel I had written in my head. However, before I could finish, and actually ask the question, she started kissing me. Eventually, I was able to pull away and ask properly, to which she responded “yes!” And now here we are, two people in love, planning for the forever that we want to live in together.