I just came back from an internship at Walt Disney World two weeks prior and was still on cloud nine, happiest I had ever been, and certainly not looking for a boyfriend. It was the first weekend back to school at The University of Tennessee and my friends and I headed to a party to meet one of their boyfriends. As we walked up the steps this very loud, tall, blue-eyed boy wearing a Hawaiian shirt darts towards me and starts spouting typical Hawaiian shirt-wearing boy nonsense. I know y'all know exactly what I mean, ha! Anyways, this boy asked for my name, which is always a lengthy conversation of repeating myself over and over until it's said correctly. Well, this guy decided to make it his mission that night to let me know he knew my name and proceeded to follow me around shouting "Kirsi" every 5 minutes. What a weirdo, right? I left that night knowing very well what my name was, but I couldn't for the life of me remember what his was! For the next month, I would refer to him as the boy with the pretty blue eyes. From that day we have managed to capture 6 years of loving each other from across the country. Jack and I would go on to face three years of long-distance while he completed law school in Mississippi and I moved to Florida to continue working for The Walt Disney Company. My biggest piece of advice for couples- try long distance. In November of 2018, we finally moved to Atlanta together and now I can't imagine a single day where I don't come home to see that boy with the pretty blue eyes. Jack is my best friend, my confidant, and my advocate and I am so lucky to spend forever with him at my side.

Leave it to me to walk in on my own proposal! Jack and I were celebrating our 5th anniversary at Chateau Elan, a winery about an hour outside Atlanta. We began the day with a tour and tasting which was already setting the day up perfectly. Once we finished the tasting we made our way to the foyer and Jack suggested we head upstairs. Without a suspicion, I happily agree and up we went. Once at the top, I notice a balcony and excitedly say let's see if the doors open and head out! I get to the door, swing it open, and step out. That's when I notice photographers in the corner and hurridly push backward into Jack and say "Oh my gosh we can't go out there!" To which he says, "Sure we can" and tries pushing me out. I am frazzled at this point and say, "No, no Jack it's like a wedding or something!" *Facepalm. Jack reassures me that it's okay to go out and that's when I finally realize oh my gosh this is for me! When I imagined this day, I always pictured Jack keeping things simple. I imagined he would have some stranger take our photo while we were on a trip, or in a unique place, drop down on one knee and that'd be that. I was completely set up for the image in my head, so when I saw a table for two surrounded by rose petals and photographers hiding in the corner you could say I was more than surprised! We spent the next hour with the photographer capturing the magic of the day which was amazing, but Jack had one more surprise up his sleeve. My one request for how he proposed was that my parents were nearby to celebrate. Sure enough, he arranged for them to come down along with his mom. Although our parents were a huge gift, the biggest surprise was he arranged for my best friend and her husband to come down too! This man is so good and I am so lucky to marry him. I am a firm believer in fairytales and he is giving me mine.