Mitchell and I first met at Mercer. With both of us being science majors, it's not surprising that we found ourselves in the same classes one fateful semester. I had heard about Mitchell through mutual friends, all of whom assured me that he was super friendly and would make a great lab partner. Fast forward to the first day of class, I sat directly behind him. He turned around, smiled, said hi, and that was it. Mitchell swears up and down that he didn't say more because he was intimidated (of me, the girl in the oversized t-shirt and nike running shorts who woke up too late to do her hair for class). Later on, I found out that Mitchell had spent those first two weeks asking around about me because he had already decided he wanted to date me. After finally getting up the guts, he decided to make his move after seeing me walk into the library one afternoon. After being wished good luck by his friend, he "accidentally" bumped into me and ask me to join them to do a class assignment. By the time I finished other classwork though, they had already finished and offered to simple give me the answers. As a thank you, I brought him a Reese's the next day for his birthday. Little did I know, that was me unintentionally making the first move. I would love to say the rest is history, but I definitely made Mitchell work for it. A couple weeks later, Mitchell would ask me out on a date, only for me to turn him down. Never one to give up, he somehow convinced me to "hang out" together outside of class. This planned "hang out" turned out to be the most date-like thing I could have ever imagined. He and I bought a bunch of snacks, rented a Redbox, and hung out in the hammock by a private lake the entire night (p.s. I had no idea what "surprise" he had planned that night - he purposely kept it from me so I wouldn't say no). Needless to say, I was impressed by the thought, effort, and courage it took for him to plan that night and I've been going along with his surprises ever since!

Mitchell and I had been together for 4 years before he popped the question (finally!). Though he and I knew we would get married one day, we hadn’t quite figured out the timing. Both Mitchell and I were both in graduate school at the time. Throughout our many conversations (basically consisting of me showing him rings and “hinting” at it), Mitchell led me to believe it would be months later before he would propose, all of which was part of his plan to surprise me. In the week leading up to the big day, Mitchell secretly met my family for dinner to ask my dad for his blessing. He visited Gibbs Garden with his dad to pick out the perfect proposal location. He hired a photographer to take pictures of the engagement and organized for our families and friends to meet us for a dinner later that night. It was outside the manor house that Mitchell asked me to spend forever with him!