Sarah and Austen's journey began during the Summer of 2020, where they found themselves working as colleagues during both of their first jobs out of college. It was July when they first crossed paths, and little did they know that their connection would evolve into something amazing. The spark between Sarah and Austen became apparent during the months that they homeschooled a student together (this was the foundation for great team work). Sarah planned all the lessons, Austen delivered the Math. The original plan was that Austen would leave after the Math portion was taught. This then turned into him staying longer and longer each lesson, and after the first month, Austen ended up staying the whole time to get to spend more time with Sarah. In the following April, they went to a local brewery in Falls Church, VA. Little did they know that this choice would set the stage for quite a memorable first date. When they made their way to the parking lot, they found Austen's car at the receiving end of an unfortunate accident. It was a moment that could have cast a shadow over their connection, but instead, it became a defining moment for Sarah. She got to see how calm, composed, and resilient Austen was, which is exactly the perfect match for Sarah’s feisty-tempered self. Fast forward a few months to when Austen and Sarah went to the end of the school year party together and a coworker asked Austen if Sarah was his girlfriend. AWKWARD. They had never discussed that, even though they had been going on dates for months. On the end of car ride home, Sarah asked Austen point blank, and he replied in true Austen-fashion, “Well, I thought that we were…” From then on Austen and Sarah were inseparable, spending every weekend together for almost two years when they then decided they were ready for the next step. Austen, Sarah and their Australian Shepherd Stella, packed up and moved in together in March of 2023. Well, one of them packed. On moving day, Sarah’s brother Joseph, who’d offered to help with the heavy lifting, showed up at Austen's place to find that he hadn’t packed up a single thing! Living together was off to a great start… The next milestone came August 12, 2023, when Austen decided to make their journey official. The couple was walking on the coast in Maine waiting for their reservation at the Dolphin Marina. Noticing his eyes were wondering along the ground, Sarah asked Austen what he was looking for and he replied “shark teeth.” Sarah instantly became very excited because she’d never found a shark tooth before, so she happily joined the search. This morphed into the two picking up miniature conch and snail shells. Austen crouched down to help Sarah look for shells, then as she walked farther down the coast he yelled “Hey Sarah, what about this one?” Unbeknownst to Sarah, Austen was holding a diamond ring in his hand. With tears of joy in their eyes, and after Sarah asked “is this real?” repeatedly, Austen asked Sarah if she would marry him and she said yes.