We met working on the set of a high school play in 2010. I (Lauren) was the stage director and Brad was on run crew. He was supposed to be working on the other side of the stage, but since he kept jacking around, he was sent to work near me with the hopes that I would keep him in line... I did.

After staying in touch over the years, I decided that he was going to start hanging out with me. I won 8 tickets to an escape room and invited a mutual friend so that Brad would come. Then I asked another mutual friend to time his Halloween party just right so that I could convince Brad that it'd be easier to just carpool. I think the nail in the coffin was needing him to help me pick up a lawnmower in the middle of the day. The rest is history.

We go to a 4th of July party every year at Brad's aunt's lake house. Brad knows that the lake, or really, anywhere outdoors on a nice day, is my "happy place" and there's a spot we almost always go to in a wooded area near the Platte River. Brad took Rory and I on a Ranger ride to that spot, which is not uncommon, only to find a bunch of kids throwing bottle rockets into the river. We left the area and went toward a boat ramp nearby. As I'm giving Rory my usual speech about drowning and death and the dangers of an undertow, Brad got down on one knee. (I should've known something was up because Rory just sat there and listened to my spiel calmly.) Just then, my brother's best friend, Kody, coincidentally popped up out of nowhere and took pictures for us. We grinned, we hugged, we kissed, and it's been surreal ever since. People often ask if I knew it was coming, and it's funny because I thought the proposal was going to happen a hundred times before that day. That specific day, though, I was so excited about going to the lake and eating all the 4th of July foods that I had no clue. And going to the lake just became even more special that day.