We're so excited to celebrate with you!

We both swiped right! Joanna was living in Austin and I was living in San Antonio, (approximately 60 miles apart). Believe it or not, she had her Tinder radius set at 60 miles. Apparently, when I popped up on her screen, the meter said "59 miles away" so I barely made the distance cut. She says she was attracted to my "nice smile, big muscles, and the capuchin monkey on my shoulder." I was drawn to Joanna by her beautiful smile, her stunning beauty, and the baby alligator she was holding. Lets just say, that our love of animals is a big part of our relationship. A few weeks later, we met for the first time in person at Gruene Hall for a Curtis Grimes concert. I brought Clayton and Joanna brought Leah, just in case things went south, but luckily they didn't. After the concert, I was able to talk them into a night cap of two stepping at Bluebonnet Palace. I remember in the truck that night on the way to the date, Clayton played the song "First date, for the last time" and here we are 5+ years later. And the rest is history! Things we vividly remember about that night... * While dancing to "Die a Happy Man" Chad was singing in my ear (which I thought was so romantic) and then he started stroking my hair (which I also found to be romantic). At the end of the song, Chad confessed that he was trying to get gum out of my hair which had fallen out of his mouth while singing. - Joanna * The day of our first date, Joanna did not respond to any of my texts all day, so I started to think she was ghosting me. At the end of her work day she finally responded. Over the next few months, I realized that Saturdays were her busiest days at work and she just didn't have time to check her phone. - Chad

The week of our engagement Chad and I went to South Padre for a few days. Upon our return there was lots of talk about getting decorations, food, desserts, etc to celebrate Chad's graduation from PT school. My parents, Chad's sister, Nikki, and her family were all coming over to Chad's parents house for the graduation party. We all toasted and celebrated Chad throughout the day for his huge accomplishment. Meanwhile, there was a giant screen and projector set up in the backyard underneath a beautiful string of lights. I was told that this was set up for Chad's graduation slide show put together by his mom. The slide show started out with pictures of Chad during PT school with his friends and his accomplishments. It transitioned into pictures of me with Chad from our many dates, vacations, birthdays, etc. The music playing in the background was so romantic too. As it turned out, Chad had created this beautiful power point with pictures of us, and then Curtis Grimes popped up on the screen! He said that Chad had reached out to him and asked if he could play us a song, (the song was "From Where I'm Standing", which was the first song we ever danced to). Wow!! As soon as I saw that, I was sure something big was happening. When Curtis was finished singing, Chad read me a poem that he wrote and got down on one knee. You know what happened next... I said "YES"!! The screen then turned to some of our best friends who had been watching the whole time on Skype!! I was elated! We had an amazing night with our family, hugging, drinking champagne and celebrating the exciting night!