We love sharing our story, and are excited to share it with YOU! We've written a bunch below for your reading pleasure, because we can't contain our joy to something short and sweet. You are, of course, not obligated to read it all, so feel free to skip around or jump to another page for important details!

It all began in 2015 when Cat discovered while attending the University of Maryland that she would be unable to graduate on schedule due to an advising mixup. In an effort to make the best of the situation, she decided to study abroad in Ireland. While there she met a girl named Mindy, with whom she quickly became good friends. The semester quickly came and went, and Cat made her way back to her home in Maryland, while Mindy stayed behind to finish her thesis and start her career. Their friendship remained, but a world apart. Little did they know this friendship was the start of something incredibly special.

A year and a half later, Mindy decided to visit home in Radford, Virginia for a couple of weeks on holiday. In lieu of meeting up with a bunch of friends separately, she invited them to her parents' house for a get together. Among the invited guests was Daniel (a long-time friend from college who lived nearby) and Cat (a more recent friend from a far away land). Cat and Daniel (unaware of each other's existence), were each excited to see Mindy, but also went into the evening a little reluctantly, tired, and wary of being over socialized as introverts. In the midst of the initial party mingling, Cat and Daniel struck up a conversation in the corner of Mindy's kitchen. With Cat clutching a bowl of popcorn, and Daniel gingerly declining to try her popcorn because he was still wearing his braces...They somehow managed to hit it off. After talking for most of the evening, missing dinner, scheming to team up in games they had been summoned to play, they continued to talk for the rest of the night. When it came time to say goodnight and head out, there was a magical moment when they locked eyes and...Said goodnight. Driving home, Daniel immediately regretted not being bold enough to ask or do...Something.

Hot on the heels of disappointment, Daniel tentatively followed Cat on Instagram, while she followed him back and then friended him on Facebook. Suddenly, the game was afoot, and Daniel saw his window of opportunity! He took a few days to collect his thoughts and then sent her a message. To his surprise, she messaged back with what seemed like excitement! They both tried to play it cool while messaging back and forth every day, and as their messages grew longer, and longer. Soon, the messages weren't measured in words, but in paragraphs. As they shared their stories, learning more about each other's lives and faith, it became obvious they had too much to say, and messages over Facebook simply weren't enough. They soon decided to take their conversations into the realm of video chat, and spent countless hours over several evenings tentatively exploring if there was more to their friendship than words. They began scheming to find a way to meet again, face to face, to see if this draw they felt toward each other was truly real.

Daniel had some business in the DC area on the Thursday, the 27th, and so the plan they concocted was to meet on Friday somewhere in DC. They even agreed it could be called a "date." True to form though, they spontaneously decided to grab dinner on Wednesday evening (the 26th), when Daniel got into town. That led to a little bit of confusion about whether or not that was a date, but in the end, they got it sorted out, and had a fun time on their first (accidental) date. On Friday Daniel and Cat met up in Union Station, with no plan, no end time, or really any idea of what they were doing other than roaming the city together. A rather bold strategy, considering they had only met in person twice. From talking science in the Air and Space Museum, to wandering around the reflecting pools on The Mall musing about faith, the hours rolled by effortlessly. Stalling at the Rose Garden outside the Smithsonian Castle before they got on the Metro, they squeezed out every minute possible. As luck would have it, when descending into the station, they realized they could ride the train for a couple of stops before they really had to part ways...Only to miss that stop because they were so busy talking! The whole day was simply not enough time together. Once they finally said goodnight, Daniel realized they hadn't talked about one of the most important topics of all: what is this? Are they just friends, or is this something more? He quickly schemed and stayed an extra night with a friend (thanks Ben!), and persuaded Cat to meet him at a botanical garden nearby on Saturday (the 29th), extending their "first date" into a third day somehow. They didn't make it official, but decided to take some time to think and pray about it before making any decisions.

After seeking advice and spending time in prayer, Daniel reached out to a friend of Cat's, Marissa, and asked her if she'd be willing to help him surprise Cat. With her enthusiastic support, Daniel planned to sneak up to Maryland. Cat had planned to go out to dinner with some of her girls, and thought that she and Daniel would be having a video chat later that evening. Given she hadn't received any clarity from Daniel on their status as a couple in several weeks, she started to wonder if he would really go for her, and braced for the worst...Only to see Daniel walk out of nowhere to surprise her, and join her and the girls for dinner. She was beside herself, and couldn't believe he came all the way to Maryland for her. After dinner, Daniel asked the girls if they would mind if he borrowed Cat for a while, and they headed on home. Daniel and Cat took a short walk together, looking for a nice place to sit and talk. That night, on a sketchy picnic table outside the mall in the dark, wearing his "never ask, never know" shirt for courage, Daniel nervously asked Cat if she'd be his girlfriend, for real. To his delight, she was just as excited to be asked and say yes, as he was to hear it. The next year and half of dating was quite a long journey, metaphorically, temporally, and geographically! The majority of it was long distance, with countless hours in a car, over video chat, on the phone, or through text messages. It was full of adventure, life, fun, tears, laughter, joy, and many ups and downs. Daniel and Cat treasure the many memories they have from this time, as they are all incredibly precious, important parts of their love story. With that said, they will spare you the nitty gritty details, and skip on ahead to what you're really here for! After getting the blessing of Cat's parents, Daniel started making plans. It took several attempts to figure out an open weekend, but he finally found one (coincidentally) a year and a half from when they started dating.

It all started with a road trip to Pennsylvania to visit some sweet friends, followed by a trip down to Virginia to visit Daniel's family before Thanksgiving. Daniel had planned to stop for a sunset hike on the way down, and a stop at the botanical gardens from their "first date" on the way back up, both romantic gestures in beautiful places, to throw Cat off and get her to stop anticipating his every move. Unfortunately, due to heavy rain, and car troubles, neither plan quite worked out. Regardless, he forged on as planned, and asked Cat if he could get a "rain check" to take her out again the next day. He picked her up Saturday morning, and instead of going to the botanical gardens like Cat expected, they pulled into the parking lot at the Metro stop, and hopped a ride into DC. A couple of stops from Union Station, Daniel pulled out a little card which asked Cat if she'd take a walk with him down memory lane. They spent the next couple of hours retracing their steps over their "first date" in DC, wandering from place to place, eating lunch, and reminiscing about that monumental day. At each stop, there was another little card, sharing a memory from that day. The end of their journey was back at the Rose Garden. The final card was given, thanking Cat for taking a walk with Daniel, and asking to recreate their first picture. After successfully taking it, and finding Daniel content to linger on the bench, Cat realized that maybe Daniel wasn't going to propose after all. After relishing the moment, Daniel suggested they explore the gardens more before the sun set. They wandered aimlessly through the gardens, as Daniel led Cat to their ultimate destination. He took her to a beautiful little private garden, where he gave her one last card with a poem he had written for her. As she finished reading it, he got down on one knee and asked if she'd marry him. Through tears, she said "yes, a thousand times yes!"