His Story: It all started on Devon Lane at JMU. I couldn't help but notice an attractive brunette speeding past me in her Honda Civic. I was excited to learn that she lived two doors down and knew I had to find an opportunity to hangout. One night, my roommate told me he was heading to the house two doors down to play card games. I knew right then, that was my chance to make a good impression. Once I arrived however, I got nervous seeing her from across the table and became the weird/quiet kid who barely talked. After that night, I figured she wouldn't be into me and I wouldn't get another invite back. A few weeks later my phone goes off and it's from a new number. To my surprise, it was Miranda! We began to text everyday and started going on group adventures together with our roommates. The more we hung out, the more I knew she was the one for me. Her infectious laughter at my jokes, her love of food, the willingness to put others before herself...I knew I wanted to be wherever she was. In the last few years we have accomplished many milestones together from graduation to starting our careers. Through this journey we have continued to fall in love, make time for laughter, and learn how to keep up with a very needy dog. I am excited to celebrate this next chapter with my best friend and look forward to the future together as a new family. Her Story: It all started in the summer of 2015. It was a few days before school had started back at JMU when my roommate and I had just pulled into the parking lot of our apartment. While sitting in the car, we saw this shirtless guy next door taking out the trash. A few months later, my roommate began hanging out with the neighbors a few doors down. One weekend we were all playing card games and eating snacks at our apartment. I was getting slightly jealous that one of my friends was flirting with my crush. A few weeks prior, Jake's roommate had given me Jake's number and said he was interested. I decided to take matters into my own hands and text him the next day. About a month later we were texting on New Year's Eve and Jake dropped the infamous line: "I would be your New Year's kiss if I was with you." I got butterflies even though it was corny. One day we all went snowboarding and I had a little incident falling while getting on the ski lift, which was super embarrassing. Jake was super nice and made sure I was okay. I asked him to go to a Valentine's Day zip-tie as my date and he was really fun! Our first actual date was on a snow day...we took his truck to go have breakfast. I was super nervous because it was the first time one-on-one and he made me nervous because of his intense eye contact. We discovered that we like a lot of the same shows, have the same humor, and we had so many little things in common from childhood. I decided to stay in Harrisonburg that summer and work at the pool while Jake was going summer classes. Everyday he cooked me a very *healthy* lunch and dropped it off for me (food is the way to my heart). That summer, he decided he was going to buy his Aussie puppy named Moose. We both had ups and downs in college and were always there for each other. Fast forward 7 years and we are living in Charlottesville and working full time to support our fur baby. We both love to travel, so we have had many adventures together so far. On August 6, 2022 we decided to go on a hike but I had suggested a really hard hike. It involved MANY spiders (Jake walked in front with a stick) and I complained the whole way up. We got to the sketchy summit, sat down, and Jake started to pull out snacks. The next thing he pulled out was a huge rock, and I was super confused. It was actually a geode-shaped ring box and he proposed while trying not to drop the ring off of the cliff we were on! I really think that God put Jake in my life at the perfect time, and I'm so happy that we are still in love after all this time. I will finally get to call my best friend "husband!"