David and I met in study hall our freshman year of high school. We ran around with a mutual group of friends until about junior year, we both had gotten out of relationships at this point. We relied heavily on each other during this time and hung out a lot, but as "just friends". After a little bit of time though I realized I wanted to be more than friends with David, he was funny, he played soccer (my favorite sport), he loved animals. He even let me talk constantly about Taylor Swift, probably the most important thing. I ended up blowing up 100 balloons in his room while he was gone one day, in 7 of the balloons were "Will you go to prom with me?". He said yes! We went together to junior prom and had a blast. I love looking back on those photos! But he still did not get the hint! It took me going on a Memorial Day trip with his family, hanging out a few times over the summer, and a Fourth of July firework show when he finally realized I was absolutely in love with him and not going anywhere. We went on our first true date July 11th, 2014 and on July 14th, 2014 he asked me to be his girlfriend <3

When it came to proposing to Courtney, the most intricate of plans had to be made. I am not usually one to create plans or take her out on dates if she doesnt plan them herself, so I knew I couldn’t do that, it would be too obvious what I was about to do. So I reached out to my brother Brady and his now wife, Mary, and asked them to ask Courtney to go horseback riding. This was something we always enjoyed doing together. After we reached a high area in the horseback tour, I hopped off of my horse and walked up to Courtney, and popped the question while she was on top of her horse. It was a magical moment that she did not expect.