It’s hard to believe all of this started with a message on Instagram. That’s right, this is a DM success story. Neither of us had any idea what was in store for us, all because Mike decided to send a message on that day back in 2017.

Taylor played her last collegiate season of volleyball in the fall of 2017, and graduated from the University of Oregon in June of 2018. She signed her first contract to play professional volleyball and moved to Germany for the 2018-19 volleyball season. Meanwhile, Mike was finishing his final season of basketball at South Dakota State, breaking the all time-scoring record while he was at it. When Taylor returned home in May of 2019, Mike decided to give it another go. Both Mike and Taylor can agree that after 4 hours on the phone that first day, they knew they had something special. They began talking every single day until they planned to finally meet in person at Mike's family vacation house in South Padre Island, Texas. It was an amazing 5 day trip that only further proved the relationship that was forming. Mike asked the big question, "will you be my gilfriend?" the very first day they met.

They say long distance isn't for the faint of heart, and that could not be more true. Both Taylor and Mike decided to continue playing their sports professionally after college. Collectively over the next four years they played in Germany, Spain, Greece and Italy. This meant tackling long distance head on, only a few months after beginning their relationship. These four years were full of endless facetime calls, watching each others' games, and surprise visits (don't forget lots of tears... mostly on Taylor's end). Fortunately every summer between seasons was spent together, squeezing in as much time as possible while still training and seeing family + friends.

Mike spent many months planning the most special day for Taylor. The Agost's had planned a family vacation to Hawaii and Mike decided that would be the perfect time to pop the question. He coordinated every detail, found the perfect beach on Oahu, and hired an amazing photographer. If that wasn’t enough of a surprise, Mike also had his mom and two of Taylor's best friends fly out to surprise her on the beach right after the engagement along with the rest of her family.