Clay and I met in physics lab at the University of Southern Mississippi during the fall semester of our senior year. I already had a lab partner, a friend from my high school, when Clay joined the class after syllabus week. On his first day, he sat next to us, then leaned over to ask me a question. It was pretty apparent that he needed some help (physics is not his strong suit), so my lab partner and I invited him to work with us. Before we turned in our first lab reports, Clay asked to see mine. While I had written about three pages, which is the norm for most reports, Clay had included only one to two paragraphs. Like I said, he needed some serious assistance. After that, he started sending me his reports the night before, and I would help him essentially re-write the whole thing before turning it in. Each time, he offered to take me out to dinner as a thank you, but I kept dodging him. Finally, at the end of the semester, he came to class with a Cane's gift card. He said that since it was easier to get J. Lo to agree to go out with him, he would at least buy me dinner even if he couldn't come with me. Then came winter break, and I didn't see him for about a month. When we got back to school, I texted him to check in. At this point, I obviously knew that he liked me, but I was too nervous to get dinner with him. And he already told me he had given up on asking me out, so I decided to ask him out instead. Clay hunts a lot, and I'd never been, so I told him to take me. And that was our first date - Clay, me, a deer stand, and not enough beer to make it not weird. But we kept hanging out. And when he got a puppy, it really sealed the deal. Finally, in March of 2018, we made it official. Now we're planning our wedding!

Clay had a clear plan for the proposal - one that I continuously ruined every step of the way. We started the weekend together at Jazz Fest, listening to Chris Stapleton, one of Clay's favorite country musicians. The next morning, we took off for Point Clear, Alabama, where Clay's mom had planned a weekend getaway at The Grand Hotel. That Saturday night, Clay told me we were going to sit down for a nice dinner, but I was really not in the mood. Tired from travelling, I asked if we could just get something quick and then hang out in the room. But Clay insisted, and I eventually gave in. Clay doesn't like to get dressed up, so I had my suspicions about the proposal. I asked him to spin around three times, and I checked his pockets for a ring box before we left. Satisfied that tonight was not the night, we went downstairs to the Bayside Grill. We had a nice dinner, but it ended with too many leftovers and a migraine. Clay offered to walk me back to the room, so I could put our food in the fridge and take some medicine. He insisted that I come back down, but not realizing that he was on a time crunch to beat the sunset, I took my sweet time. We missed sunset, but the night was still clear and beautiful. We went for a walk on the beach and came across a gazebo with string lights. I made a joke about him never getting rid of me, which looking back, he took pretty seriously given what happened next. While I was staring at the ocean, Clay managed to get down on one knee and fish the ring out of his boot (a spot I hadn't thought to check). When I turned around, he was waiting. Then he asked me to marry him. And now, of course, we know I said yes!