We hope you will join us in Hawaii to celebrate!

I started talking with this cute boy from Wyoming about 2 years ago. We had talked about workout supplements and the conversation naturally ended. I left the conversation there, thinking we would never talk again, until a few days later I got another message from him asking “Hi Katie what’s the best thing you’ve done all week?”. It’s wild for me to think, that if he never doubled texted me, I would have missed out on my future husband. He picked me up for our first date and when I got into the car, I could hear him taking deep breaths. I even asked “are you nervous!?!?” And Riley being the honest guy he is, said “of course I’m nervous!!” Our first date was at the automobile museum and he was instantly so kind, so sweet and so funny. We then drove and got a coffee and learned more about one another. On our second date, we did an escape room in downtown Reno, and 12 hours later he dropped me off at my friends home at 3am. I had this bright idea to go on a road trip with a near complete stranger to Monterey, but that road trip solidified us, and since that drive, Riley and I were truly inseparable. Drives to and from Fernley were the norm, until he moved to Sparks. We have had such fun in the time we’ve been together traveling as much as we can, seeing concerts and just being with one another. He is the kindest man, goofiest partner, handful of a human being… but also the most reliable, loving and caring person. He is one of my best friends. The day he proposed, we both knew it was happening, but it still didn’t stop his jitters or his tears when we got to the proposal spot… to which I even asked Riley if he was ready to get out of the car and do this. Riley asked me to be his wife, and here we are planning our wedding!

I remember my first date with Katie at an automobile museum. I was much too busy looking at how "wow" she was to appreciate or care about any of the cars. I'll never tell her this and she'll never know, but I was pretty nervous and she was a talker, which made the date much easier. After our date, I saw her once a weekend or so because she was busy with graduate school - I was busy missing her ... (but she had no idea). Nobody has ever made me laugh the way she has. For the first month or so, I would text her at 4am and she always text me back to say good morning and then fall right back asleep until around 11am. When her spring break hit, she would drive all the way over to Fernley to spend time with me. One of my favorite memories is one day I was at work, and I did not hear from her until around noon, so I rushed home on my lunch hoping she was still lounging around at my house. Sure enough, after I scared her by knocking on my locked door, she rolled out of bed and showed me my favorite type of Katie: curly haired bed-head, morning fresh, and scared that she was going to get kidnapped because there was a "stranger" in the house. That is when I also learned that she locks every door that she walks through. Soon after, she invited me to spend 3 days with her in Monterey, which was very exciting for me because being with her was slowly becoming one my favorite things. That trip is where we really connected and I learned we could go on long trips and still come back still wanting to hang around together. Fast forward, we have traveled together so many times, and I'm grateful for each one. We worked past the phase where we both didn't know when it was acceptable to spend all our time with each other by becoming accidentally inseparable. Her friend had to tell me to make it official with her, because I just assumed that she was already my girlfriend. I haven't met someone so level headed, kind, funny, and caring in my life and I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her long before I asked her to. She and I both knew it was going to happen when I did ask her, as I randomly wore a really nice shirt and asked her to go for a drive with me - suspiciously. She didn't even ask why, she just went with me. I knew - that she knew - and she knew - that I knew - she knew. But sweet Katie didn't want to ruin the surprise and did not ask a single question. Her not saying anything really made it special. She was still surprised because she did not expect was her best friend to be there helping me along the whole way and taking pictures of our engagement. Long story short, I love her.