They met in 2016 at the crossfit gym Ashtyn attended...James joined the gym shortly thereafter (; They started dating in 2017 because "persistence" is James middle name and Ashtyn's is "stubborn"

For weeks, James and his mom had been confirming the details of a weekend in Hermann, Missouri to celebrate James' little sister graduating from nursing school. The plan was to drive up Friday afternoon and stay at a boutique hotel in the middle of town. When leaving Friday afternoon, I jokingly said to James, "you didn't forget the ring did you?", even though I truly thought we were just having a fun family weekend. Poor James. Upon arriving to Hermann, James passed the hotel we had talked about staying at, and when asked about it he assured me that his mom gave him the correct address and that maybe we were checking in at a different location. When we arrived at the winery where we were supposedly meeting his family, there were zero parking spaces and zero evidence that his family was there. James stopped the car in the circle drive and jumped out of the car (strange) to call his mom. He turns back towards me and gives a mischievous grin as he walks into the building. At that moment I thought "holy crap, maybe today really is THE day." I anxiously waited in the car and texted my mom...she didn't respond. However, James was smart and didn't tell her his plan because he knows the two of us can't keep anything from each other. When James came back to the car after what felt like 30 minutes, he had a loaf of "welcome" bread and directions to our hotel. For whatever reason, the bread threw me off and I thought maybe I was overanalyzing and the proposal wasn't actually going to happen. But, after passing the hotel I was told we were staying in for the SECOND time, I knew something fishy was going on. As we drove up a hill, I noticed a beautiful white gazebo and to my surprise James said that was actually where we were staying. We got out of the car to go find his family and that's when I noticed an ice bucket with champagne and two glasses inside the gazebo. He then got down on one knee--you all know what happened next (:

After deciding on Herman Hill blufftop cottages and gazebo as the destination for the proposal, I worked on planning a cover-up so Ashtyn wouldn't figure out what was going on. My sister was graduating nursing school that summer, so I had my mom plan a “celebration” weekend in Herman. I found a local hotel that our family would stay in and had my mom send out the details. I was still worried Ashtyn would recognize we weren’t at the right place when we arrived and would realize what was going on. My mom reassured me she wouldn’t remember the hotel name months from then and it would work. Wrong… As we pull into Hermann, Ashtyn see’s the sign of the hotel and of course, tells me I’ve passed it. I reassure her that we’re going the right way, check in is just up the road. I could tell she was becoming skeptical. She began asking where my family was, so I told her they probably already checked in, and I’d call my mom on the way in. When I go inside to check-in and prepare for the proposal, I find out that the gazebo where I’d propose and our cottage aren't here at check-in, but a half mile away. At this point, I realize this isn’t exactly going as planned. Slightly panicking, I get the directions out of the welcome packet and on my way out take our welcome bread. As I approached the truck trying to figure out how to keep my plan from unraveling, I’m greeted with her laughing and confused why I’m walking up with a foot long bread stick. Luckily, the bread was so good it threw her off. As we are driving to the spot, again, I get thrown for another loop when she says “Look at that gazebo! I love gazebos!” Praying it’s the gazebo that I had decorated and not somebody else’s elaborate set up, I look up to see our gazebo perfectly arranged. My plan had finally come together and to make a perfect ending, she said yes.