I was in college in Columbia, SC and working at a restaurant downtown when Dakota walked in one day to start working there too. I didn’t think much of it because people came and went pretty quickly there. But after a few weeks, I came to think he was super funny and friendly (not to mention handsome). There was a day at work before we were even really friends when he popped out of the cooler with a giant serving spoon in his hand like a microphone and he said “WE’RE LIVE ON THE AIR, now Caroline, do you think I’ll find a wife here at Hickory Tavern?” and pointed the mic at me. I laughed and said anything’s possible. Over the next few months, we became friends and I ended up moving into the same apartment complex that he and my brother (who also worked at Hickory) lived in. It very quickly became our routine that after work he would come over to my apartment and we would have a beer, play board games, and just talk. As we got closer, I got more sure. I would text my friends every night about the sweet things he would do for me and say. I told them this was the man I was going to marry. We weren’t even dating yet. In May, the friend I had told that to was having her birthday weekend in Charlotte and we were both invited. The first night we were there, we ended up in a bar without the rest of the group and he finally asked me out. From there we spent every day together. He packed lunches for me on days that I had long hospital shifts, I spent every free moment I had visiting him at work. By the time December rolled around I was graduating school and we had already been talking about getting married. We went ring shopping together and picked one out. Around then we made the decision to move to Colorado together, a long time dream of mine that became his when we went to our friends wedding there early in the year. In March we packed up our two dogs and two new kittens and moved across the country. 2 months later we found out that we were expecting our precious little boy, Micah Wyatt. I spent most of the time we were in Colorado on the couch, while Dakota had to spend it at work. But we both love Christmas, so in December he got us tickets to a light show at the botanic gardens that was hard to get into. Very last second, his boss told him he had to work and he couldn’t get out of it. He was so upset about missing the light show, more upset than I had ever seen him. So instead, we planned a little trip up to Evergreen, a small snowy town with a frozen lake and lots of Christmas lights. We walked around the town and got dinner, then went out onto the frozen lake under a big tree covered in Christmas lights and that was where he proposed. He was shocked that I didn’t see it coming! Micah was born later that month and we decided soon after to move back to South Carolina where all of our family and friends were. Now that we’re back and all settled in, we’re super excited to get to plan our wedding and celebrate with you all!