We're Getting Married!

We are high school sweethearts, and have been since our freshman year of high school. As classmates since kindergarten, little did we know what God had in store for us. Our friendship started in 7th grade, eventually leading to our first official date on Valentine's Day of 2020. After that, we became pretty inseparable and have continued to choose each other every day since.

In Summer of 2024, Luke had planned multiple dates for us to dress up for, in an effort to disguise which date would be for the proposal. On one Saturday in July, with one of these dates planned for that night, Emily was doubting that it would be the proposal date. Luke was about to leave for a 2-week international trip, and to Emily, Luke seemed too relaxed all day (sleeping in and taking a nap, no worries in the world!) for him to be hiding plans for a proposal. Emily's sister helped her get ready, and Luke helped her pick which dress to wear. Emily had hopes that it would be that night, but wasn't quite sure. As we got in the car, and Luke drove (with GPS hidden, so Emily had no idea where we were going), he seemed to get more nervous. However, Luke had told Emily that they had dinner reservations at 7, so she didn't think anything would happen until after dinner. As we arrived and walked through downtown Portsmouth towards our reservation, Emily insisted to Luke that she could walk faster in her heels, as they were cutting it quite close to 7. However, Luke assured her they didn't need to rush. As we passed the Prescott park gardens, a special place to us, Luke insisted that we walk through the gardens since the flowers were so beautiful. With the reservation time in 1 minute, Emily realized her initial thought of when the proposal could happen was probably wrong. As we crossed into the gardens, Emily noticed someone in the distance, peaking out from behind a tree, with a camera. And... Emily directly asked Luke why there was a woman behind a tree with a camera. As Emily grew more excited for the moment, Luke guided us through the flower beds, and on our second lap around, Luke paused, shared some loving words, dropped to his knee, and asked the big question. Emily said yes of course! After a couple minutes to absorb the moment, both families arrived (thanks to Luke's planning) and joined the celebration to take photos all together, and then enjoy a very nice Italian dinner (where the reservation was actually at 8pm!). Just the start to forever!