We're getting married!

Cole and Erin met for the first time at the K-State Architecture Beaux Arts Ball in November 2010. Erin was standing alone at the bar and Cole opened with the impressive line "whatcha drinkin'?" Cole had noticed Erin before, and she looked stunning in her teal dress at this fanciest event of the year. Though his opening line was not well timed, as she had just bought herself a drink (Erin still insists this was intentional but doesn't hold it against him), he struck up a conversation about the event and graphics he knew she had helped plan and design. The conversation was brief, but memorable to this day for Erin - this stranger made her feel flattered, appreciated and noticed in a way she didn't realize was possible for a stranger to do. She was caught up with another love interest that evening and Cole might say she rejected him, but Erin remembered the interaction fondly. For the next few months they exchanged knowing glances in the hallways of the Architecture building, and had a few hopeful and flirtatious interactions charged with mutual attraction when their friend circles became intertwined in late Spring 2011. Timing was not on their side then; Cole was newly dating someone else. After he graduated a few months later, Erin resolved that it just wasn't in the cards after all.

In August of 2012, Erin had just returned from study abroad and began her 5th year at K-State. Erin's friend, Felicia, and Cole's friend, Cody, had been dating for a while now, and Cody had organized a group of his friends to come back to Manhattan for a football game. Erin had planned to spend the day at another tailgate, but Felicia was persistent on getting her to come over to theirs. Erin didn't realize why at the time - until finally Felicia gave in via text, "Cole's here :)" Cole got nervous as he too understood the implications and walked off, as he tends to do. Once they both had arrived at the tailgate, games were played, stories exchanged, and spirits were high. Cody, always being the mischievous one, gleefully encouraged Erin to squirt a bottle of ketchup onto Cole. She did. Although deeply not thrilled with smelling of ketchup for the rest of the day, this somehow endeared her to him. Both didn't have tickets to the game so ended up spending the day together walking and talking all over Manhattan. Even after they met back up with their friends for a night out in Aggieville, they continued to steal away sweet moments of getting to know this other person that had been a mystery for so long. The day ended with Cole walking Erin home, and asking her out on a date on the sidewalk in front of her apartment. They went for dollar tacos two days later on Labor Day, an initial investment that ended up having a very high return.

It was the day before Cole's birthday, a beautiful sunny day as spring drew into summer. Many weeks before, Cole had thought of a plan to organize the proposal under the guise of his birthday celebrations - he told Erin that he wanted to go to the quaint little river town of Parkville to spend the afternoon. The plan was to go to the nature sanctuary, visit the shops along the main street, and have a nice meal before they prepared for the evening's birthday festivities with friends. They parked at the sanctuary and began the "hike" - a treacherously straight, well-paved, and demarcated half mile walk directly to a waterfall. Though Cole's hands were cold and trembling and his pace was quickened, he made sure to play it cool and snap some good nature pics with the tripod he had brought with them. This was well-intentioned, but ultimately a hapless attempt to throw off the scent of a soon to be engaged woman. The tripod didn't give it away, Erin had known all along what was going to happen that day - detailed birthday itineraries requested weeks in advance are the not norm for Cole. That fact didn't put any damper on the sweetness of the day and the magnitude of what happened next; as they approached the waterfall and took it all in, Cole set up a tri-pod to take a picture. After posing for the "picture", for what felt like an eternity to them both, he got down on one knee. Erin, of course, while sobbing, said yes.