We’re getting married!!

It was breezy Sunday afternoon at a soccer field. Hunter was playing on Easton and Grayson’s travel team, and what started as a simple scrimmage turned into the beginning of something much more. We began at one field, where Crystal happened to sit near David. When the game was moved to another field because of the wet conditions, David quietly hoped she might end up sitting near him again. As luck would have it, she did. Crystal was there with Corbin, who was happily occupied with snacks, and David’s mom, Debbie, was nearby trying to stay warm. Without hesitation, Crystal offered Debbie a blanket due to it being chilly. A small but meaningful gesture to someone she had just met. Not long after, Debbie stepped away to the car, giving David and Crystal the chance to talk and get to know each other. Before the scrimmage was even over, Crystal sent David an email about the upcoming soccer season. What started as a simple exchange quickly turned into a friendship, as they spent time together supporting the boys and making sure they could play and have fun. And somewhere along the way, that friendship grew into something more…and the rest is history!

From the moment I laid eyes on this woman, I knew she was the one, I just needed to figure out the right time to ask her to marry me. After more than two years of doing life with this incredible woman, countless vacations with The Crew, buying a house that is perfect for us, and getting the blessing from all the kiddos, I knew the end of 2025 was the perfect time. My original plan was to propose while we were in Savannah for New Year’s Eve. What could be more perfect than asking the woman of my dreams to marry me while standing on River Street under the fireworks as we started a new year together? The only problem was that I NEVER plan vacations, so she absolutely would have expected it, and I wanted her to truly be surprised. Instead, we planned a quick anniversary trip to Wilmington, one of our favorite cities, and I knew she would never suspect a thing. The challenge was that Crystal had mentioned wanting an engagement photographer, so now I had to figure out how to pull that off in only 6–8 weeks. I reached out to several photographers and booked the first one who was available. From there, we started planning how the surprise proposal would happen, whether it would be more romantic on the beach or somewhere downtown that we had visited many times before. Crystal planned the trip, so I asked if she would let me plan a romantic dinner so we could get dressed up. The photographer was booked, dinner reservations at Tarantelli’s were made, and now I had to figure out how to make sure she dressed the way I knew she would want to look in our engagement photos. Easier said than done. She picked out an outfit she loved and trust me, I loved it too, but I knew it probably wasn’t what she would want to wear for engagement pictures. Ansley and I recommended the outfit she ended up wearing because it was similar to the professional photos we had taken with The Crew before, and thankfully she took the bait hook, line, and sinker. Fast forward to September 20, 2025. We had dinner reservations at 7:30, and on the way there we were stopped by a photographer supposedly working for the Wilmington newspaper who asked if she could take photos of couples who were dressed up downtown. Crystal immediately looked at me and said, “We have dinner reservations….do we have time?” I reluctantly replied, “If it’s something you want, baby, of course we have time.” As we were taking photos around the boardwalk area, Crystal looked at me and asked, “Did you plan this?” I smiled and said, “No, but how cool is this?” After about 5–10 minutes, the photographer asked Crystal to walk away from me, turn around, and run back into my arms. Crystal was probably thinking, “How am I supposed to run on cobblestone in heels?” while I was thinking, “The photographer and I never rehearsed this....is this when I’m supposed to propose?” Figuring this had to be the moment, I dropped down on one knee as Crystal turned around. At first, she thought I simply wasn’t ready to catch her. Then she noticed the ring and yelled, “You have got to be kidding me!” Once she finally made it over to me, I started the proposal speech I had rehearsed a hundred times only to completely forget every word the second I saw her reaction. So instead, I simply asked her to marry me. She said YES, and the rest is history.