We're getting married!

We met at a bar. I know it’s a cliché, but I doubt most of you are that surprised. In fact, most of you probably know the bar in question: the Red Door Saloon in East Nashville—a nice place to unwind and enjoy a beer or two with friends after a long hard brunch shift. It would never have occurred to me that this bar would one day change my life, especially not on that day—pushing our way through a crowd of over-served patrons fresh from what appeared to be a particularly tacky 80-90’s themed retro party. My friends and I sat at a table across from the group, eager to get a few drinks and catch up with the party in front of us. I was only halfway through my first when a man wandered over to me and told me he liked my shoes. Having just finished a hard day of work, I wasn’t thrilled for the attention. I don’t know exactly what he said after that, I was only listening to every other word in between eye rolls, but then he did something truly unexpected—the thing that made me fall for him. What was this grand romantic gesture, you might ask? Well, he pulled out a slap bracelet, put it on my wrist, and said: “We’re going to be best friends.” I burst out laughing. I couldn’t help myself. Maybe it was the nostalgia, maybe it was the snap of the bracelet, maybe it was the smile on his face, but as it turned out, these would be the truest words anyone would ever say to me my entire life. And I wouldn’t trade that story for anything in the world.

Corey and I moved to Cali this past year so that Corey could work as a Disney Imagineer! We’ve been lucky enough to take some pretty amazing weekend trips since our move, but none more memorable than one of our first: a lazy trip up the coast to Santa Barbara. Despite my fear of the ocean, Corey somehow talked me into giving SUP a go. At first it seemed to be a spectacular success, the weather was beautiful. But that beautiful day turned pretty bad pretty quick. As it turned out, of all the days we could have chosen , we chose to go right when the coast of Santa Barbara was hit with a microburst. Now, the name microburst may not sound that threatening—it might even sound cute. A microburst is when two powerful currents collide to create what’s basically an upside-down tornado. It’s 80mph winds and rain falling so hard that you can barely see in front of you. Needless to say the best place to be in the middle of a microburst isn’t the middle of the ocean on top of a thicker, clumsier version of a surfboard. Boats were lifted out of the water, roofs were torn off of buildings and palm trees were completely uprooted out of the ground. It was the scariest 15 minutes of our lives, but we got through it, and we got through it because we were together. A few months later, Corey took us back to Santa Barbara, and back to the harbor where we almost died. We were sitting on the beach, drinking coffee and watching dolphins swim by, when Corey turned to me and told me what a great team we made; a team that had already proven it could handle whatever life—or Mother Nature—cared to throw at us. We reminisced about everything we’d gone through together: the good, the bad, and everything in between. Then he did it. He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I cried, I said yes, and we did our best to relish that perfect moment before celebrating the rest of that wonderful weekend and the bliss that came from knowing we’d be spending the rest of our lives together.