We met during a Halloween Party at Ian’s house one night. Mackenzie was out with some new girlfriends she had only just met a couple of nights prior. She had just moved to Myrtle beach and was trying to meet new friends, so they had invited her to come along with them for some Halloween festivities. Meanwhile, Ian was attending college at Coastal Carolina University living on campus with a few roommates. On this night out, Mackenzie’s new friends decided to end their night by going to meet up with mutual friends of Ian’s at his house, little did she know at the time they were leading her straight to her future husband. When they got there, Mackenzie was introduced to everyone at the party but immediately picked Ian out of the group, noticing his cute face and sweet smile as she shook his hand for the first time. Ian had his eye on Mackenzie as well and later that evening, the guys had this funny glow in the dark nerf toy bow and arrow they were shooting outside in the sky. Mackenzie was standing out in the driveway alone for a moment when she felt something hit the back of her and turned around to find that cute guy (Ian) laughing with the bow in his hand. Mackenzie picked up the arrow laughing with him and walked over to him to return the arrow and ask if she could try it out too. This small event, led to them striking up a conversation and even though they had only just met, the chemistry was so instant, they ended up laughing and talking together all night long till the sun came up into the next morning. As Mackenzie was leaving the next day, Ian looked at his friend as the door closed behind her and expressed that he had never met a girl as beautiful as her before. It is extra special to us that we get to celebrate our wedding now 8 years later, at the same time of year the stars first aligned for us.

We love being on the water and paddling out by kayak and paddle board together to Waties Island north of Cherry Grove Beach often, a beautiful lone island with a forest like area and tall grass and old trees emerging from the sand where we usually like to walk around, sight see and Ian enjoys fishing, but on this day while exploring the island and venturing off to a secluded area, as Mackenzie was distracted looking at fiddler crabs she turned around to find Ian already down on one knee with a beautiful ring.