We have been best friends since junior year of high school. We were both involved in athletics, so our friend group consisted of very competitive athletes, all of whom were determined to wrap each others' houses in toilet paper or win the many different video games played over the weekends. We kept in touch as we went off to college and would get the gang back together on school breaks. It wasn't until after Erika moved back from Phoenix that we spent even more time with each other and Erika realized she had feelings for her best friend! It was new and scary, but we decided to see where it would go...

The pandemic happened, so Erika has been working from home since March 2020. Erika found the ring for Ashton and placed the order. Unfortunately while Erika was in a meeting, the ring was delivered and Ashton answered the door! Erika is terrible at keeping secrets from her loved ones, so she ended up popping the question in our living room. Not romantic, but the original plan was to propose while we were snowboarding in Utah, however, the ring did not arrive in time. UNBEKNOWNST TO ERIKA, Ashton had her ring delivered to our friends' house and had been planning on the perfect proposal. Ashton convinced Erika to indulge in a weekend getaway to one of our favorite cities, Washington, D.C. While exploring the Japanese gardens at the Hillwood Estate, Ashton spun Erika around (while on a very thin rock bridge) and said "I love you, will you marry me?" and the rest is history!