Neither of us were looking for a relationship when we met. Sutton was getting ready to leave for a deployment, and I was trying to find my place in the world. One day in September of 2022, I had received a message from a friend saying that this guy had something he needed to talk to me about. I was in a cruddy situation with a guy he knew at the time. I texted him, he spilled the tea, I left the situation. The first time we met in person, I was working late as a cashier. He waltzed in with my friend and her boyfriend at the time. At that point in my life I had my heart heavily guarded, so, although it was love at first sight for him, that wasn’t necessarily true for me. After that day he began to constantly hang around. Show up at mine and my friend’s apartment, and show up at both of my work places just to chitchat, make me laugh, buy me lunch, and stay with me while I closed up shop. The more he hung around, the more we talked, the more I let my guard down, and the more I fell. Then on October 16th, 2022, he had asked if I wanted to be his girlfriend, obviously I said yes! Soon after, I learned that he would be leaving for a year long deployment. We talked about it and thought we would at the very least give it a good chance, so we did. We stayed strong through it all. The day Sutton Proposed was absolutely magical. No it wasn’t flashy or glamorous, but it was personal, and completely us. We had gone out on a beautiful hike up to Petite Jean with our dog, Henny (RIP sweet girl). We went on multiple trails, one leading to the glorious waterfall. Afterwards we had traveled to the overlook. It was cloudy and foggy so we couldn’t see the view, but we walked around and read the plaques about the history of Petite Jean and her grave site. Then, out of nowhere I turned around and there he was on bended knee. It was instant tears for us both. He had asked me to be his wife and I of course said yes. Now here we are today, planning our wedding, and getting ready to say our “I Do’s” in front of everyone we know and love to bear witness. Our story may not be all smooth sailing and perfect, nor will it be in the future. But through all highs and lows we may encounter, we know we are stronger together. If we can get through a year long deployment at the beginning of our story, we can get through anything life throws our way.