Please keep checking for updates for the lastest information regarding June 19th.

Our love story started the same way many relationships start these days, swiping on a dating app. We both swiped right and the impatient person in me (Mandi) sent a message to Alex right away. It took him a day to respond, but he finally did! Our conversation was pretty generic until Alex stopped responding. I was definitely bummed until a message popped up on my phone a few days later. It was actually from his friend Joey’s fiancé (now wife), Andrea, who I went to college with! She was trying to convince me to come out and meet Alex. I was house searching around that time and was in no mood to go out that night. I was frustrated the house I liked didn’t pass my dad’s inspection! My dad must have known I’d find the perfect man instead of the perfect house. Thanks to Andrea, Alex continued to message me and conversation continued. This was all around Thanksgiving time and Alex was headed to North Carolina to see his brother and his family and I was in my friend Alicia’s wedding so it didn’t work out to meet up until after Thanksgiving weekend. We had been talking about Christmas and Alex convinced me to help him decorate his Christmas tree. This tree was the tree that he and his family spent every Christmas around. So for our first date, he suggested decorating the tree and cooking dinner for me. Somehow I knew he wasn’t a chef so he suggested my favorite Mexican restaurant, which also happens to be his favorite. Finally, on Tuesday, November 28th we had our first date. We went out to eat and neither of us touched the chips or salsa they put on our table - we were both nervous! After dinner, we went back to his house and decorated his tree, a special tradition that we will continue to share for years to come! Or something like that.

Alex and Alissa, my twin sister, put a lot of thought into this special day. Alex knew he wanted to propose on our first anniversary but couldn’t decide how or where he would ask me. A few weeks prior, Alex and I were discussing our plans for our first anniversary. I thought it would be fun to have Mexican and decorate our tree, just as we had on our first date. We went to Hobby Lobby to get some new Christmas decorations and picked up Alissa along the way to help. While we were shopping, Alissa made the comment “wouldn’t it be fun to go to the tree farm and pick out a real tree?” Alex and I both thought about it and said “sure, that sounds fun!” Of course, I wanted to make sure we got a few photos out of it and asked if she’d come with us to take pictutes of us picking out our Christmas tree. She agreed and thought we should do a little photo shoot of Alex and I, as well as pictures of her and her boyfriend, Josh. I wasn’t surprised that Alex agreed to go as he typically goes along with any of our plans. A few weeks later, we met Alissa and Josh at the tree farm. They arrived before us and told us which trees we could choose from. We started taking some pictures and then came up to a tree that was already decorated. I thought someone else had decorated it and it was the perfect backdrop for a picture. (I found out later Alissa and Alex went earlier in the afternoon and decorated the tree together.) Knowing that we would be taking pictures at the Christmas Tree Farm, I had found different picture poses on Pinterest and had my back turned to Alex for the picture. He said turn around and when I turned, he was on one knee and asked me to marry him! I was in complete shock! Alex and Alissa had a photographer hiding in the trees who popped out and took amazing pictures of us, way better pictures than we had planned for! After our proposal, we ordered Mexican and enjoyed it at home so we could call our family and friends to share our special news.