Every love story is beautiful, but ours is my favorite

In July of 2017, Salem, IN, was holding an all-nighter tournament. I was supposed to play in a different tournament that weekend but, due to other circumstances, had decided to join a friend in Salem for the all-nighter. Come to my surprise, a handsome man was sitting in a lawn chair wearing a UK hat as we walked up. Throughout the day, we played in the outfield side-by-side as he watched me fall twice in holes and make all sorts of silly mistakes. We began to chat, only to find out that he had stayed up all night working so that he could attend the tournament that day as well. We were joking about our team (IU vs. UK) rivalries and flirting while waiting for our next game. Around 2 AM a huge storm hit the fields and we all had to evacuate. They called the games after a few minutes of heavy rain and I solemnly watched him leave wondering if I would ever hear from him again. A few minutes later I received a message on my phone through Facebook messenger. He had asked his friend what my last name was so he could message me and ask me out on a date. We went mini-golfing the following Wednesday and the rest is history.

All good things in our relationship has come with rain. This time, it was raining as hard as it could have. Jake had invited all of our close friends and family to Oliver Winery so he could pop the question. I had no idea it was coming and was very lucky to have something on other than sweatpants (he had to ask me several times if that is what I wanted to wear). Luckily, I decided to wear makeup and some nice clothes. We had originally scheduled a picnic but due to the rain had to stay inside for a wine-tasting. Towards the end of our tasting, a large group of people walked in, and with a double-take, I realized that I knew all of them! The moment started to hit me as I knew what was going to happen. Jake read me a wonderful book that he wrote for the occasion and got down on one knee to ask me to marry him. I immediately said "yes" and we embarked on our first adventure as the future Tolbert family.

We will be eloping to Tennessee with a select few to be married in a cabin in the mountains. Hopefully the leaves will be beautiful, but we would bet money it will be raining! We cannot wait to start our adventure together and then share in our excitement with everyone at the reception on 11/16/2019.