~Jackie's Perspective~ In 2015, we were in the same history class together. I had gotten Evan's number under the rouse that I needed "study help", but soon after Evan left the class due to not doing well with the material. Towards the end of the school year, I had reached out to Evan and asked him on a lunch date after final exams. (I guess I wasn't clear enough because he did not realize it was a date). Soon after that, he had gotten his wisdom teeth out and I stopped by his house with some soft serve ice cream to help him feel a bit better. After hanging out all summer and becoming close friends, we began dating on November 22, 2016. We decided to choose our wedding day to be close to our dating anniversary, because it was such a special time in our life.

We started dating in our senior year of high school, right around the time we were also figuring out where we wanted to end up for college. We had very different ideas of the kind of school we wanted to be a part of, and so we made the decision to do long distance through college. For the past 4 years, we have been dating between Orlando, Lakeland, and Palm Harbor. Spending a lot of gas money and time on I-4, we tried to see each other every weekend, and any breaks from school that we had. We made it a habit to facetime every night before bed to catch up on the other's day. On top of school work, we have also been juggling work and extracurriculars, which has made making time difficult, but always worth it. We would find little ways to make the drive easier, like finding a really really long podcast series. Jackie's favorite is a true crime podcast (And That's Why We Drink) and Evan's favorite is a D&D podcast (Critical Role). Being in a long distance relationship gave us the ability to grow independently, together. There are many challenges that came with the miles apart, but we would do it all over again for the end result.

~ Evan's Perspective ~ The hardest part for me telling this story is how to start. Most people start with how they knew they wanted to marry their partner, but its so difficult to put into words. One of the hardest parts of being in a long distance relationship is saying goodbye after being able to see them for a short period of time. After a weekend of being together, as I waved Jackie goodbye on her drive home, I realized that I wanted to have a moment where I wouldn't have to say goodbye to her anymore. Soon after, I picked out a ring and asked her mom for her blessing in proposing to Jackie. My plan was to propose on our 2nd anniversary, where we had planned to be spending in Disney World, but I wasn't entirely sure of the full plan on when and where. I scrambled to get a reservation at Be Our Guest, because Belle is her favorite Disney Princess, and I decided that would be the perfect place to pop the question. Once we there, I was so nervous that my hands were shaking during dinner. I kept thinking in my head that she would notice that I was acting weird, but I guess I played it off cooler than I thought. After we finished our meal, we went to get pictures taken by the stained glass in the front of the restaurant, and that's where it happened. During our pictures, I said that I had a question for her, then I got down on one knee and said, "Jacqueline Rose Carlton, will you marry me?". We were lucky to have the moment captured in pictures, and we got rounds of congratulations from the people around. Overall, a magical proposal story.