Barrett and I went to the same high school, one year apart. We had mutual friends, but never really got to know each other during that time. Barrett even went on a date or two with a couple of my friends! Come to find out years later we always thought the other was cute in high school, but we're jumping ahead... Barrett went off to college to play football at Appalachian State in North Carolina. I stayed local and started college at Kennesaw State. Post-college Barrett moved back to Georgia, and we ran into each other at a bar at the Battery. We chatted for a bit, and that was when Barrett really caught my eye! It wasn't until months later, Barrett was on his buddy's Bachelor trip. Apparently he had been wanting to reach out to me since that time we ran into each other at the Battery, but never built up the courage to take his shot. Lucky for me, a little liquid courage is all Barrett needed to send me a message through Instagram on that Bachelor trip. I woke up the next morning to a 2:00am DM (direct message) from Barrett. May not have been the most romantic move but needless to say, the rest is history!

It didn't take long dating Lauren before I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. I actually bought the ring in May of 2019, about a year after we began dating, and I held onto it until later that year when I decided that it was the right time to pop the question. The original plan was to propose to her on Christmas Day so that her brother Taylor would also be there- he had just come back from deployment in the Air Force. However, after a minor setback (Lauren accidentally found out that I had a proposal planned for Christmas Day), I decided to change the plan and do it on Christmas Eve to keep the surprise alive. On Christmas Eve of 2019, my parents and I snuck over to Lauren's parents house while she and her parents were at their Christmas Eve church service. I set up a bouquet of Orchids (her favorite) on the kitchen counter so that Lauren would see it as soon as she walked in the door. From the bouquet, there was a trail of rose petals that led outside to her parents back deck. I think Lauren was slightly in shock (and definitely crying) once she got home and followed the rose petals outside to see me standing on a Christmas tree skirt on her parent's back deck. After what felt like forever waiting for Lauren to pull herself together and join me on on the tree skirt, I held back tears and built up the strength to ask her to spend the rest of her life with me. She of course said yes and then we celebrated with both of our families including her brother, who joined us the next day on Christmas. Since then we've bought a house together, and we've both been keeping ourselves busy working, wedding planning around the Covid pandemic, and dog parenting our two hellions.