Emily moved to Fort Worth from Austin in October of 2017. She began attending Christ Chapel Bible Church that December. Chris had been attending Christ Chapel for about a year. Both enjoyed playing sports with the young adult group from Christ Chapel on Sunday afternoons at the TCU Intramural fields and this is where they met. Beginning in 2018, Chris and Emily began seeing each other more at various events with their young adult group. Emily's birthday party in January of 2018 was at Top Golf. Chris was part of the group that attended and he paid for the bay that Emily was playing in. A few weeks later, the Christ Chapel Young Adult sports group had a day where they played in pouring rain and even some hail. It was a blast! The group took a photo together, but Emily didn't get the picture. After the Wednesday night service that week (Renovate), Chris and Emily talked for a while. One of the topics of discussion was the rain game. Chris got Emily's phone number by offering to send her the group photo! Neither Emily nor Chris remember everything they talked about that night after Renovate, but they both agree that the conversation was a good one and it left each of them wanting to get to know each other more. Emily tore her ACL in April of 2018. Chris consistently checked in with her to see how her recovery and rehab was going. Injuries and surgeries became a topic that Chris and Emily bonded over, as Chris has had many injuries and surgeries himself!
Emily and Chris both got new cars in July and August of 2018 - another topic for them to bond over! They started talking more and more from that point forward. In August, Emily made the comment of how she REALLY needed to wash her car. Chris offered to wash her car for her and, much to his delight, she took him up on the offer! The following week, Chris asked Emily if she wanted to go grab some gelato. That outing ended up turning into their first official date. Chris picked Emily up, took her to dinner, then took her to eat some gelato. At the end of the evening, they ended up sitting on a bench in the Clearfork shopping area for a few hours, talking. Emily had two tickets to the Baylor v. ACU football game in Waco on September 1, 2018. She asked Chris if he'd go with her, and he did (Sic 'em Bears!). They had lots of good conversations on the car ride to Waco and back. This was the day that Chris asked Emily to be his girlfriend and the two became "official"!
Chris had been planning on asking Emily to marry him on June 1, 2019 for months. Her dad gave Chris his blessing so he was excited that he would have the chance to propose! The day FINALLY came. Emily's family was in town without her knowing. They met up with Chris' family at the Fort Worth Water Gardens. Chris picked Emily up at her apartment. He had told Emily that they were going to eat at Del Frisco’s for Chris’ parent's anniversary with the family. (Side note: Emily looked on the website and saw that Del Frisco's has a dress code, so she bought a dress for the occasion.) As Chris was driving, he had his mother call him and say they were "running late", so Chris said that he and Emily would wait at the Water Gardens. Chris and Emily parked downtown and walked to the Water Gardens. As they were walking to “the spot,” Chris was hoping Emily wouldn’t see anyone they knew- and thank goodness she didn’t! They got to the bottom of the Active Water Pool and looked around for a bit. When Chris saw both families ready at the top, he told her that they weren’t going to go eat at Del Frisco’s. He began to tell her he loved her and that he wanted to marry her as he got down on his knee. Emily was surprised and she broke into tears. She heard everyone cheering, so she looked up and was surprised to see their families. In all of the commotion, Emily forgot to give Chris her hand until he asked for it (whoops!). With the hard part being completed, they hugged for a few minutes until she composed herself, then went up to see their families, share hugs, and take pictures. After they finished with pictures, Chris and Emily walked to T&P Tavern, where they had friends and family waiting for them to celebrate- ANOTHER surprise for Emily. As they arrived at T&P Tavern, their friends and family cheered and Emily started crying again! The proposal day could not have been any more perfect. Chris and Emily are really looking forward to their "happily ever after"!