We met online! We bonded over our favorite books and genuinely enjoyed talking to each other. No one-word replies were sent, and we talked every day for two weeks before deciding to go out.

We met at NanaTaco in South Durham; Zach was 10 minutes early and I was 5 minutes late, and for the most part, that remains true to this day. We had amazing tacos, but we were both way too nervous to pay attention to the food. Surprisingly, we never ran out of things to talk about, even as we got in the car to head to the movie theater. We saw Guardians of the Galaxy on August 23rd, 2014, and had our first kiss under the stars. (In the parking lot. ;)

This all started with a snowstorm that took North Carolina by surprise. We were supposed to get 2" of snow, but we got about 10" and it snowed ALL. DAY. Work was canceled for both of us, and so we got up and had a leisurely breakfast and got ready to head out into the still falling snow. A friend asked if we would like to take pictures out in the snow later and we agreed that we would meet before sundown. Zach and I enjoyed a lovely walk through the snowstorm in the morning and then had lunch and warmed up back inside. After the photoshoot, Zach asked if I wanted to go in, or take one more walk down to the lake. My feet hurt from my snow boots, but I wanted to see the frozen lake in our complex one more time under all the falling snow. We walked to a small part of the trail that was covered by snow-laden pine trees and Zach completely took me by surprise by getting on one knee (in about 8 inches of snow) and asking me to marry him! I said yes several times and many ugly cry faces followed.