Brady and Hope's love story is a modern-day fairy tale that began on Hinge, "The dating app meant to be deleted” (and spoiler: it was!). Hope was the one who “liked” Brady’s profile first, and, after lots of texting and voice messaging back and forth, Brady made the suave move to ask Hope to meet him in a parking garage for their first date. For context, the Richardson Street Parking Garage is a well-known parking garage in downtown Greenville that has free parking on the weekends. It also has a nice little courtyard right outside, and this is where Brady meant for the two to meet up. However, Hope, not being from Greenville, and sparsely venturing the 45-minute drive there from her apartment, was unaware of this vital context and denied Brady’s seemingly somewhat creepy request and offered that they instead meet at a restaurant. The first date ended up being at Menkoi Noodle House, a cute little hole-in-the-wall ramen spot on Main Street. Both fresh from church, the theater-loving science enthusiast and the Pokémon-obsessed engineer, upon meeting face-to-face, immediately began their introduction by engaging in a playful argument on who was the nerdiest (an ongoing rivalry that is still yet to be decided). From there, most of the rest of the date was wonderful. The conversation was easy, the ramen was delicious, and the views were spectacular (Brady and Hope both have admitted that they thought the other was out of their league), and the detractions only came in the form of Hope falling up a flight of stairs (she was uninjured and this only made the first date better/funnier from Brady’s point of view) and from Brady potentially getting food poisoning (a fact he did not decide to share). The rest, as they say, is history. The first kiss came a few dates later as Brady walked Hope to her car after a cute little bowling date. The first “I love you” came a month or two after that on the drive back to South Carolina after visiting Brady’s family in Michigan. The first catastrophic sunburn incident (because both were too stubborn to put on sunscreen) happened a bit after that during their first spring break together. For over 2 years now, the two have spent every minute possible together; they’ve survived natural disasters together, traveled all over the country to meet family and friends together, and gone on a concerningly many late-night McDonald's apple pie runs together. And through it all, their shared love of witty banter, goofy (terrible) jokes, and deep conversations, have made every moment feel effortless. Hope and Brady are truly the bestest of best friends, and that, combined with their shared faith, values, and mission (to share and show the love of Jesus in everything they do), has made loving each other as easy as can be. With hearts aligned and futures intertwined, it was only a matter of time until Brady popped the question, and on Valentine’s Day of 2025, that’s exactly what happened. In an Airbnb in the mountains with a fancy homemade dinner cooked for her, Brady got down on one knee in a heart of rose petals and candles and, through tears, asked Hope if she would marry him. She said “yes” (they think, neither of them remembers the moment with clarity) which just solidified the decision that they both knew was inevitable at this point: that they were going to spend the rest of their lives getting to love each other.