Worth the Wait

Haley and Patterson first met all the way back in 2014 during their freshman year of high school, when they shared a daily history class and bus ride together. Haley wasn't too fond of Patterson's 14-year-old humor at the time, but he slowly started to grow on her during their early years of friendship. Flash forward to their junior year of high school, Patterson asked Haley to be his girlfriend in January 2017. Frequently leaving other classes to go hang out with Haley while at school, Patterson was pumped to have tricked a girl that was way out of his league into dating him. After high school graduation, they went their separate ways in college: Haley to play Division 1 softball at the University of Evansville, and Patterson to get a journalism degree at the University of Missouri. Despite Patterson's busy schedule between holding a leadership role in his fraternity (shoutout Delta Upsilon) and working at the local NBC television station, he was often picked up from Mizzou by Haley's family to embark on countless trips across the country to go watch the love of his life play college softball. When they weren't together, Haley and Patterson used whatever free time they had to talk daily over FaceTime, maintaining a strong bond despite physical distance. After powering through a long distance relationship during all four years of college and Patterson's first year in the workforce, they finally moved in together. They headed to Southwest Florida in March 2024 for Patterson's job with the Minnesota Twins organization, where they have been located since. After asking Haley's parents, Jason and Cheryl, for their daughter's hand in marriage, an elaborate plan for a proposal came together over four months in late 2024. Patterson finally popped the question (much to the surprise, and delight, of Haley's grandmother) when he and Haley were visiting Kansas City at Thanksgiving time, celebrating that night with some of their closest friends and family. A love story for the ages, they will have been together for nearly nine and a half years by the time their wedding day arrives. They can't wait to commemorate almost a decade together with all of their favorite people in May 2026.