Luke was finishing flight school in Alabama and MacKenzie was working in California. Luke had made a group of friends at flight school that happened to include MacKenzie's brother. MacKenzie flew all the way from California to visit her brother and get out of San Francisco for a while. She attended a bonfire with her brother and all of his friends, including Luke. MacKenzie and Luke were introduced and began to get to know one another. After that weekend, MacKenzie returned to California and Luke focused on flight school. Then months later, Luke sent a romantic letter to MacKenzie and the two continued to write to one another. Writing turned into calls, calls turn into FaceTime, and FaceTime turned into flights. They kept a relationship going from miles and miles apart and the rest was history.

Luke had just returned from a nine month rotation in Europe and had not seen MacKenzie. They planned a week long beach vacation where their families could join and welcome Luke home. MacKenzie was under the impression that this is all that they were celebrating that week but little did she know, that Luke had been holding on to a diamond ring and had already asked for blessings. He had planned out the proposal and filled in each family member. Then, when the two were walking by the beach before dinner, Luke took MacKenzie's hands and got down on one knee. With happy tears in her eyes, she said YES!