Rachel's Matron of Honor, Kalli, was at the time dating Tyler’s cousin, Chris. Kalli was about to move out to New Jersey and Rachel was going to come out to visit shortly after for 3 weeks. Since Rachel was going to be out there awhile, Kalli told her she should talk to Tyler so they could all hang out while she was visiting. Rachel and Tyler texted each other for a few months until she got out there and they finally met in person in a hotel parking lot in Point Pleasant, New Jersey on July 7, 2016 :) That whole trip they really hit it off and had so much fun together that after Rachel went back home to Utah, they continued to talk, text, facetime, you name it. In October of 2016 Rachel was able to go out again to visit Tyler at his college and he asked her to be his girlfriend. They did two and a half long years of long distance between Utah and New York with more plane rides between the two of them than they could count. When Rachel graduated school in spring of 2019, she packed up her car, picked up Katie (bridesmaid), and drove across the country to finally be with Tyler full time. And now here we are :)

Tyler came home from work earlier that week and said to Rachel that they were going to have dinner with his co-worker and his girlfriend that Thursday. He told Rachel they were going to a nice restaurant called Keens Steakhouse and to dress nice. Thursday came around and they were ready to hop on the train and go to dinner. Coming into Grand Central Station, the train got held up for a few minutes and Tyler was getting super angsty and Rachel was chill as a cucumber having no idea what was really going on. As we were coming out of Grand Central Station, Tyler made a phone call to whom Rachel thought was his co-worker, but it was actually Kalli and Christopher who were waiting for them on top of the Empire State Building. He pretended it was his co-worker saying he was running late and that we should go check out the Empire State Building first. We started walking that way and Tyler was basically dragging me along the busy NYC streets because he wanted to get up there for the sunset. We got there and he had already bought two VIP tickets to get to the top. When we made it to the top Christopher and Kalli were there and I was just in shock to see them and knew that something was about to go down. The sun was about to set and Kalli suggested she take some pictures of us. We got some pictures taken then Tyler started tearing up, had a little speech prepared, got down on one knee and said, "Will you marry me?" and as you all know, I said "YES!"

Eden, Utah is a very special place. Rachel's ancestors from her paternal grandmother’s side were one of the first families to settle in this beautiful valley. In 1970, Rachel's grandparents Norma and Dean Darby purchased their land in Eden and broke ground on the home that they would live in for the next 50 years. This is where Rachel's dad grew up and Rachel grew up coming here her whole life. Every time Tyler has visited Eden, he loves it more and more and we could not imagine a more beautiful and special place to get married. Keep scrolling for a photo of the valley :)