Our love story began in Dunford Hall at the University of Tennessee. Hannah had just graduated from undergrad and was working as an intern in the Center for Leadership and Service before heading to Texas for graduate school. Natalie was starting grad school at UT in the fall and moved to Knoxville early to begin her graduate assistantship. Through Hannah's way too personal icebreaker questions and Natalie's desperate need to build community in Knoxville, work lunches at Chaiyos quickly became wine nights at Sunspot, which eventually led to drag shows at Edge. Within 2 weeks, we had gone from strangers to close friends sharing about our relationship trauma and religious beliefs. Natalie began texting Hannah regularly after one too many glasses of wine, and Hannah would always call and talk to Natalie on the phone on her 25 minute commute home. In mid June, Natalie attended Knoxville Pride as an "ally." Hannah had too much fun at Kristopher's the night before and didn't attend at all. As the summer continued, Natalie began spending more and more time lingering in Hannah's office. She would even voluntarily help Hannah staff the CLS table for two hours at every orientation session--like any true friend would do. In late June, when eye contact began to feel different, Hannah started picking up on Natalie's not so subtle hints. On July 2nd, we had our first kiss on Natalie's apartment balcony and the rest is history. At the end of July, Hannah moved to Texas, but her heart never left Knoxville. Spending the first 2 years of our relationship living 944 miles apart came with many peaks and valleys, sleepless nights, lots of tears, and a little (a lot) of debt. But, through daily facetimes, monthly visits, incredible support systems, and the stubborn power of love, we both made it through graduate school and moved to California in August 2019 to begin our lives together.

California gave us our first born Krieger, a few good friends, and life experiences we will never forget. As fate (wildfires and a global pandemic) would have it, we moved back home sweet home to Knoxville in November 2020 to plant our roots right where it all began. While moving across the country in the middle of a pandemic was incredibly stressful, it did provide the perfect disguise for a surprise proposal. Nat and I had been working with the lovely ladies at Fox and Beaux in Asheville, NC since July to design our bespoke engagement rings. If you know Natalie, you know that she had to be involved in the process, but I still wanted to surprise her somehow. We came up with the perfect compromise. We both could see our rings up through the final design sketch, but after that all updates were confidential. I went through MANY scenarios in my head of how I was going to propose to Nat, but ended up going with a minimalistic approach. We left California on Saturday November 7th (the day Joe Biden was declared the President-Elect), arrived in Knoxville on November 11th, and I proposed on Friday November 13th. Our friends Megan and Kelsey were my partners in crime along with MANY accomplices to plan an intimate gathering to celebrate our engagement with a Saturday rooftop brunch. My mom and Nat's mom rendezvoused in Asheville for lunch to pick up Natalie's ring, and delivered it safely back to Knoxville. On the big day, Megan and I convinced Natalie that we were going to walk Krieger at Suttree's Landing River Front Park before getting a beer at Hi-Wire. While getting out of the car, I slipped a different collar on Krieger with a tag that said "Mom, will you marry my other mom?" I barely walked 10 feet out of the car before Krieger and I were down on one knee. Megan snapped some pictures before we met my parents and Nat's dad and stepmom for a celebratory dinner at Chivo (another surprise). Nat was truly shocked and it went better than I could have ever expected.

After being fully surprised by Hannah's proposal a mere 48 hours after we stepped foot back in Knoxville, I knew my original plan of proposing in January wasn't going to happen. I quickly began brainstorming of ways to make her proposal special, despite it likely not being much of a surprise. After sending a few texts to her parents, I decided the weekend after Thanksgiving in 2020 would be the perfect weekend to do it. The morning of November 28th, I asked Hannah if she wanted to take Krieger for a walk at Ijams Nature Center in South Knoxville. She was hesitant (and suspicious), but Ijams has always been one of our favorite spots for walks and easy hikes. In true Krieger and Natalie fashion, he was trying to chase squirrels the entire walk, and I was a bundle of nerves. When we got to the boardwalk that looks out onto the Tennessee River, I blacked out, got on one knee, and the next thing I knew, Hannah said yes. She wasn't all that surprised by the proposal BUT she was surprised by the mini staycation I booked for us that night including a nice dinner and a night at the boutique hotel downtown, fully stocked with flowers, champagne, and chocolate covered strawberries. It was honestly the best way to celebrate.