Fun fact; we were friends long before we started dating. We met back at James Madison University back in the fall of 2012. We met at our university's archery club when I was a freshman and he was a junior. We were friends for a long time and we kept in touch throughout the years, even when I moved to Los Angeles in the fall of 2016. After some planning, Caleb came out and visited me in February 2018, and we decided to date shortly after that. Then we had a long distance relationship for nearly three years. In the summer of 2020, I decided to leave Los Angeles and move back to the east coast, where we moved in together.

We were vacationing down in Hilton Head, South Carolina, like we do as a family every summer. This summer was special because this was also when my sister had her wedding ceremony. We had the ceremony right outside of the rented out beach house near a golf course and lake. The ceremony concluded when we chucked birdseed at the happy couple (don't worry, this comes back into play later). A day after the ceremony, at the blessing/prior permission of my sister, Caleb asked my father for his permission to marry me. Then on that Wednesday, we were hanging out at the house while everyone else was walking on the beach. I leaned out over the porch to watch the sunset. When I turned back around, Caleb was down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Because we didn't have a ring at the time, Caleb grabbed one of the birdseed packets left over from the ceremony and wrapped the ribbon around my finger. I wore it the rest of the trip.