Our story began, as so many great romances do, in a dorm (oops, I mean residence hall). We met working as RAs in the Academic Village at Colorado State University in 2011. After bonding over watching the Sing-Off with our good friend, Regan, we spent the spring semester pretty much inseparable, eating meals together and studying, marked by many heart-to-hearts and evening trips to 'Spress for smoothies. Eventually, we realized we were basically dating and should probably tell our boss. Not that he hadn't already known for months, even if we didn't.

In 2014, Rachel graduated from grad school and moved to Boise, Idaho to work at Boise State while Tyler stayed in Fort Collins to finish his last semester. This was followed by a brief six months living together in Boise, where we spent lots of time with each other and Samson, playing volleyball and enjoying life together. In the fall, Tyler moved across the country to start a masters program at the University of Connecticut, and so commenced the stupidest two years of all time. But we made it through, getting to see each other once every two or three months (how did we actually survive that?), and finally Tyler graduated and we both found jobs in LA and left long distance life behind forever because it was honestly the worst. Fortunately, we knew it would be worth it, and life together in LA has certainly proven that to be the absolute truth.

On New Year's Eve of 2018, after almost seven years together, we agreed to propose to each other sometime in 2019. Rachel's Proposal: On May 11th, I surprised Tyler with a courtyard in our building decorated with lights and lots of purple things in honor of his favorite color. Tyler got to read through thoughtful, kind notes from friends who, under the guise of Tyler's birthday, sent me these notes detailing the things they love and appreciate about him. We then watched videos from my family and best friend congratulating Tyler and welcoming him to the family. I asked Tyler if he would marry me, and Samson sprinted onto the scene with Tyler's engagement ring tied to his collar. The cherry on top came when we FaceTimed Tyler's best friend, Alec, to tell him about the engagement, only to have Alec sprint into the courtyard to wrap us in a bear hug. Alec had traveled in from Arizona just for the weekend to be a part of the proposal. Tyler was...surprised :) Tyler's Proposal: After Rachel's incredible proposal, I knew I had to prepare something great. So in June, I started rehearsing! On December 10th, Rachel went to happy hour after work with her close friend, Olivia (all part of the plan). In the meantime - myself, Rachel's friend Christine, and my friend D'Andre all decorated Rachel and I's apartments with lights, succulents, candles, and photos. When Rachel returned, I surprised her by playing the piano and singing The Only Exception by Paramore. I had no piano skills prior, so shout out to YouTube tutorials. Then I asked Rachel to marry me! Rachel then got to take a look at the photos we had hung up, which each had some of my favorite memories of us and small notes on the back. After, we celebrated with a Goolteigha traditional fort night featuring The Lorax, which we had seen on one of our first pseudo-dates :)