WE’RE GETTING MARRIED!!!

I received a call one afternoon after work from a mutual acquaintance about a guy who was "a hard worker, had a nice truck, was very country and was interested in me" after said person talked me up to him. Alright my interest was peaked. I was told that I should be receiving a Facebook friend request from him. Now mind you there was a request but that was it soooo I initiated the first message and did not receive a response back.....I remember thinking to myself well screw that guy, especially the more time passed. But, low and behold, 24 hours later it FINALLY happened, a response back. From that day on we talked basically 24/7 every single day for several weeks. One night we finally agree to meet in person and there was an instant connection. I was so nervous, mom had a house full and a majority of the time was spent parading him around introducing him to everyone, let alone it being our first time face to face. After saying our goodbyes we both felt that we were ready to start officially dating. Now our relationship has not always been easy, we've experienced a lot of trying situations over the years between family, health, finances, growing up and figuring out how to navigate our lives together. We've both made tough decisions and had to take some time to figure out what we wanted but ultimately though, through it all, we've decided on forever. There has been a lot of patience, compromise and growth both together and apart that has really gone into our relationship and has, over time, made us better and stronger together.

For my 18th birthday, Tyler and I decided to go to St. Augustine. We rented a room right across the street from the beach. That day we went to Walmart and bought kites that we ended up flying at the beach later that evening. I was having a hard time getting mine off of the ground while Tyler was a pro. After he got his flying, he came over and helped me with mine and we hooked them onto the sand fencing post near the dunes. Then he comes up to me, takes both of my hands and is acting very weird and nervous and I am not to sure why. He then proceeds to give me the most beautiful promise ring right there on the beach in the most perfect way. I was completely speechless. Then he and I decide to take a walk down the beach and he tries to write our names in the sand together.....where he completely FORGETS HOW TO SPELL MY NAME and then proceeds to ask me....we'd been dating for 8 months at this point. This is something I will NEVER let him live down.

Tyler planned an anniversary trip to St. Augustine for the two of us. The day we left was pretty dreary, overcast and there was rain in the forecast. Now Tyler was on edge, checking the weather, huffing and puffing basically the whole ride and I am not understanding at all why he is so up tight about something that's really not that important. We were getting away to relax, no need to stress about nothing. We get there and then we check into the same hotel we basically always stay in since our first trip. Now the sky is still super overcast and its still drizzling a little bit but Tyler wants to go out on the beach. So we walk...and walk and walk and walk some more (because apparently there's a protection project going on where they're building up the beaches which made for a super long walk to the water plus there's equipment everywhere) but it finally stops drizzling for a moment and there's a small opening in the clouds that lets a little bit of the sunset through. Tyler steps back and gets down on one knee. He says absolutely nothing for what felt like forever. We're just looking at each other and I am not sure if I am supposed to say anything or not and then he asks me "Will you marry me?". Obviously I say yes. On our way back he says how he's been trying to think of the right words to say all this time and how the weather threw him off and how I (unknowingly) took a step back which made him freak out thinking I was fixing to say no and so he ended up saying the only thing he knew. Now here we all are.