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Katie: We met at the best place you can meet a person – a martial arts gym. I had been coaching and training there for a while, and I like to introduce myself to the new people. When Jake walked in the doors, I promptly introduced myself to him. He told me his name was Jake, and I couldn’t help but say “Oh like Jake from State Farm!! I’ll just call you that.” Little did I know that he found that to be annoying and almost everybody said that when they met him, so I wasn’t very original. Jake: We met at Meta Martial Arts, a local martial arts gym in Fayetteville. I was still relatively new to the area and decided to check out the gym, As I entered, Katie was one of the first people that I met. I will never forget how welcoming and friendly she was, but more importantly, how funny she thought it was to call me "Jake from State Farm" – as if I have never heard that one before.

Katie: We had known each other for months and had several good conversations, but I never really thought of him as more than a friend. Unfortunately, I dislocated my knee for the fourth time that spring, and my physical therapist insisted that I start weight training to strengthen my muscles. Like most people, I felt intimidated about going to a lifting gym and wasn’t sure what to do when I got there. I knew that Jake had lots of experience with personal training, so I asked him for help. (He laughs at me because I asked for his ‘contact information’, but I was just trying to be professional). I was a little nervous about the personal training, but I remember that Jake was very considerate, respectful, easy to talk to, and that I actually started enjoying weightlifting because of him (and my knee is much better!). He wouldn’t let me pay him, so I asked him if I could get him some ice cream. We went to Andy’s and talked for hours. We both reminisce that we didn’t think much about the other person before Andy’s but left thinking that there might be something there. Jake: Katie wanted to hire me as a personal trainer, so she asked for my "contact information". At first, I did not wish to pursue a relationship with Katie, and I think that she felt the same way. After a few weeks however, I started to realize that I was beginning to like her. We went to Andy's and learned more about each other. I believe that this was the moment that we both realized we could see a relationship working out.

Katie: Technically, we went to King’s River Falls for our first date. He had mentioned wanting to pursue me in a relationship, and I had told him that I wanted to think about it. After a week, I said that I was interested as well, so we went for a hike. Jake pulled me aside near the creek (it was beautiful) and officially asked if we could be in a relationship (and I said yes). That whole day was a lot of fun – the hike was amazing, and Jake took his camera and taught me how to take videos of water. Jake: Our first serious date (serious as in we both knew that we were interested in each other) was a hike and swim at Kings River Falls. This was also the location where I asked Katie if we could officially label ourselves as boyfriend / girlfriend. We drove a little over an hour both ways to reach this swimming hole, yet it was very much worth the trip. .

It did not take us long to figure out that we wanted to be married. We liked the idea of a fall wedding and planned to be engaged in the spring. On one visit to Little Rock, I knew Jake was going to ask my dad for his blessing (I mean, he told me he was). Nothing went as planned for Jake, because he wanted to pull him aside the day me and my family were going to fly to see extended family. My dad ended up being occupied with the airline and Jake asked him the question in the literal last minute, which didn’t give my dad much time to have a thoughtful answer. After a couple more phone calls, Jake received my dad’s blessing (again, he told me). You won’t be shocked that Jake also told me when he got the ring and where he was going to propose (he tried to tell me where he was going to propose in Russian, but he is still working on his accent). I totally wasn’t surprised, but I was very ready to say yes. Jake: The engagement process was… well, not like a typical one. Once I had purchased the ring, she had already known it was in my possession. She also kept asking me when, where, and how I was going to propose to her. As both of us were clearly excited about the process, I decided to answer her question in Russian. Despite the place I decided to propose being a proper noun, it still sounded unique enough that I felt she would not have figured it out. Boy was my judgement off. (If there is one thing I have figured out, it is that you cannot outsmart Katie.) Anyways, because she had already knew the place that I was planning to propose, I decided to just keep to the original plan. After a night of training jiu-jitsu, I wanted to take her up to Mt. Sequoyah before taking her home. As we arrived at the top of the mountain, I looked at her face, and I just remember seeing a smile that was bigger than life. As we got out of the car and walked over to the cross overlook, she knew I was about to propose. It was roughly 7:30 p.m., so there were a good amount of people at the overlook waiting to watch the sunset. Katie grabbed my arm and pleaded for me not to do it in front of the other people, so instead of proposing in front of the cross overlook with the sun setting over downtown Fayetteville, we walked to a more private area (Mt. Sequoyah’s outdoor wedding area) and I proposed there.

Katie: I complement Jake for how forward and clear he was from the start about his intentions. I laugh that he is so honest that it would be hard for him to keep a secret like the proposal, but it is something I consider to be very mature about him. He is also very compassionate and caring. He puts up with my stressfulness and likes to clean. His humor is also like mine, so he doesn’t think I am too weird. I most of all appreciate his dedication to growing in Christ and his striving to be a more responsible, mature man. Jake: I appreciate how hard working, loyal, smart, and friendly she is. I appreciate that she has a heart for Christ and that she goes out of her way to make other people smile and laugh.

Katie: We found a great ticket deal for Silver Dollar City during a weekday. Not only did we save money, but we also had the rides to ourselves the whole day. We rode roller coasters a minimum of 100 times and laughed so much. However, I wouldn’t recommend the McDonalds in Branson – that was probably the worst part of the trip. Jake: My favorite memories with Katie have been in the kitchen. I have enjoyed cooking and creating unique/ fancy dishes with her, specifically the ones that present a challenge and put us out of our culinary comfort zones. I also have really enjoyed reading the Bible with her and discussing how we can apply what we have learned to our lives, both as individuals and as a couple. Lastly, I have really enjoyed teaching youth martial arts classes with Katie. It has been a blast.