It all started in January of 2023—just a few weeks before a Texas freeze. We met through mutual friends one evening, not long after Elizabeth had gotten back from a barrel race. Rhody had just returned from Christmas break, Elizabeth and a friend picked him up from the dorms. Nothing about that night felt like the start of something big. But looking back, it was the beginning of everything. There wasn’t a real “first date.” Instead, plans to pick Elizabeth up from the airport (after she flew in from a rodeo) changed at the last minute. Somehow, it turned into Rhody—someone she had only met twice—coming to get her, and the two of them heading to the Stockyards. To this day, Elizabeth still doesn’t know why that felt okay. She’s not the type to meet up with someone new alone… but something about Rhody just felt different. We skipped the “just friends” stage entirely. From the moment we spent that day together, it felt like we’d always known each other. Days later, when the Texas freeze hit, Elizabeth was told absolutely not to drive her truck on those icy roads. So, she got “stuck” with Rhody for an entire week—and had no choice but to make the best of it with this wild college kid. Somehow, through the chaos of ice, laughter, long talks, and takeout, everything fell into place. The freeze didn’t just shut the world down—it slowed everything down just enough for us to realize we were exactly where we were meant to be. Since then, life has only gotten better. We’ve built a relationship that some people spend a lifetime hoping to find. And here we are—three years later—getting married. Just to prove the Texas freeze wasn’t just a week long… it was the start of forever.