Our story begins in the summer of 2019 at FUGE camps in Charleston, SC. We had a great friendship that grew through the eight weeks we served together! But as the summer came to a close, we knew there was more to our relationship than being "just friends". After we talked about where our hearts were, we decided to take a little bit of time to seek the Lord and make sure we were heading in the right direction. After our time was up, we both knew that a relationship was exactly what we needed to step in to. A couple of weeks and a trip to GA later, we were dating!

We were dating long distance for the first year of our relationship. I (Kaleigh) got on a plane for the FIRST TIME EVER, which is how I knew I loved him! We made it a priority to see each other at least once a month. Over our time traveling to see each other we did so many cool things: toured UVA, visited the Billy Graham Museum, celebrated our first VA Thanksgiving together, visited Busch Gardens at Christmas time, visited the GA Aquarium, traveled to the beach with each of our families, AND survived a pandemic! In September of 2020, our LDR finally came to an end when Mateo moved to GA to serve as a youth pastor! It has been so sweet being in the same state and doing life together DAILY.

We had just come back to GA after spending Mateo's birthday and New Years with his family! Mateo had everything planned out PERFECTLY. We went to eat at The Rookery, the place of our first date and took a stroll down Poplar Street in Macon. Everything was perfect: the Christmas lights were still shining, the air was chilly but not too cold, and the street was almost empty. As we were walking, we were talking and reminiscing on our relationship past, but also talked about how excited we were for the future. Next thing I (Kaleigh) knew, Mateo was down on one knee underneath the tunnel of Christmas lights in the middle of downtown Macon. Our sweet friends Heather, Ashley, and Megan were there to take pictures and videos (and CELEBRATE!!!). It was like it came straight out of a Hallmark Christmas movie! And just like that... we were ENGAGED!!!!!