In the fall of our sophomore year, Chi O had a semi-formal coming up. My best friends (now bridesmaids!) Arden, Yara, Colette, Jacy, and I had reached the consensus we were tired of asking "frat guys" to these date events... so we landed on the idea of taking athletes instead. After spending what was probably way too much time scrolling through every men's team roster on the Texas Athletics Website, we decided on asking boys from the swim team. I vividly remember looking at the many roster pics, and scrambling to call dibs on taking John. At this point I knew nothing about him, other than he was the absolute cutest boy I had ever seen. Turns out John had a physics test on the night of Chi O semi-formal. At that time I thought this was an excuse... until he followed up with an offer to go on what ended up being the best and last first date I'd ever go on. John had quite the night planned: first, s'mores at Halcyon, a cool downtown ATX coffee shop / bar, then, we'd sneak to the top of the Bowie, the tallest residential sky-rise in Austin. I loved his creativity and boldness. We failed to outsmart the Bowie's security, so I had the idea to try the JW Marriott rooftop instead. The deal was if we were successful this time, we had to jump into the pool. So, at night in November, we jumped in the pool in our clothes. We were cold and probably uncomfortable, but neither of us cared because we were so captivated by each other. We walked around downtown chatting for another hour or so after that, me wearing John's jacket, and then John dropped me off. I learned quickly on that very first night we met John was not only the most good looking guy, but also the godly, goofy, gentile, and genuine man I had always prayed for. We both fell asleep that night knowing we had just met the one the Lord had planned for us to marry one day (cheesy, but true)!

On the first full day of the Held family vacation in Breckenridge, John was adamant about going on a hike (even though it was raining), so I tagged along. He was charging up the hill at a pace I could hardly keep up with. At the time, I thought it was because he was in way better shape than me (which is true), but it's really because the ring was in the pocket of his shorts and he didn't want me to see the outline. Our stopping point according to John was "when we got to the pretty view", so when we finally reached a clearing, he set up his phone to get a "photo" using the timer camera feature. The camera was actually videoing us, so he turned to me and popped the question - easiest YES of my life! The most beautiful thing about this was immediately after, on a day that had been somewhat dreary, the clouds cleared up, the sun shined through, and the sky turned blue. We both could feel the Lord's presence, and felt it was such a symbolic moment of the life ahead of us as a team. The proposal was everything I had always dreamed of: intimate with no photographers or bystanders, in a place both of us love, and a 100% SURPRISE. Three nights prior, John had convinced me the proposal wouldn't be until after what would have been Olympic Trials in 2020, so a proposal on that trip never once crossed my mind... and definitely not that hike... made the moment just that much sweeter. We're so excited to celebrate this next chapter in our lives with you!