We're getting married!

Her Version I very vividly remember first meeting Jake the beginning of my senior year of high school at leadership conference where all the schools in the Southern Union meet up in North Carolina. He approached me trying to recruit me to play ultimate frisbee - we only said a few words to each other but the attraction was immediate for me. Fast forward to a month or so later we were put together in a tour group of Southern and I was obviously very happy to get to know him more. We talked the entire day and immediately clicked. After View Southern we didn't keep in contact much but remained friends until we both graduated and started our undergraduates at Southern. We immediately jumped straight into a friendship - but ask my mom, I had a plan all along. Exactly three months later I succeeded in my plan, he asked me to be his girlfriend, and we never looked back! He's everything I have ever wanted in a husband and I can't wait for our next chapter! His version First of all: don’t listen to Amariah. She has some made up story about how we met at leadership conference which is completely wrong. I clearly remember the first time I saw her - College Days at SAU. Let me tell you the real story... By some miracle we got put in the same tour group and ended up talking the whole time. I remember thinking she was so cool with all of her stories of surfing and her travels. After that, I didn’t see her again until we ran into each other at a Prayer Conference in Florida while canoeing, that was my first introduction to her love of the outdoors and her elephant pants. We kept in touch on and off after that until we met up at the Welcome Back party our first day at Southern. From there it was game over, I think we hung out everyday for the next couple months until we finally realized that what we had could be the real deal and started dating. Now look at us, we were right! I could not be happier to be spending the rest of my life with her.

Her Version Anyone who knows me knows that I am impossible to surprise - and if I had it my way I would have planned and executed my own engagement. However, Jake proved himself when he completely caught me off guard on Wednesday, October 13. Wednesday's are typically our date night so when Jake told me to dress up and be ready to leave for the Cheesecake Factory, I was not suspicious. He said that we would be going on a drive to look for fall colors - which we often do - but I started asking questions when he confidently turned into a random driveway to a pond and a dock. The secret was out when I saw the candles lining the path up to the dock. Unfortunately, Jake will have to take over from there, because I remember almost nothing from the moment I realized, until about 10 minutes after when my sister, who I hadn't seen in months, came running from behind a tree to surprise me! He really thought of it all and I couldn't have planned it any better myself. His Version To begin, I have never been so nervous for anything in my life. I had known for a while that we were ready for the next step and had gotten the ring in July but was nervous from then until the moment I finally gave it to her. I had found the place I wanted to propose when I went to my boss's house for a work dinner and saw a beautiful dock and pond. A month or so later I was getting the dock looking how we wanted, finding the best hiding spot for her sister for when I was proposing, picking wildflowers and making a charcuterie board - the latter which I had no idea how to do. Despite all the little pieces that went into it, it all went well and it will go down as being the greatest date night we have ever had! We set off lanterns, drank Martinellis, and I was finally able to tell her all the things I had been keeping a secret - best feeling ever! On the way back I had one more surprise for her, all our friends and her family waiting to celebrate with us. It was absolutely a night I won’t forget.