The evening of Saturday October 26th was the day that my world changed forever. Shayla and I had first met on Bumble (a dating app) and had been talking for a few weeks prior to that night. My friends and I were having a costume party for halloween and so I invited Shayla to come. I think she was a little nervous because we hadn’t met in person yet and she wouldn’t know anyone at the party, but she agreed to come anyway, along with her sister Kate and Kate’s husband Kody. Me and three of my friends had decided to be “glowy zoey’s” for halloween. If you don’t know what that is, it’s basically a black hoodie and black sweatpants with LED light strips that attach to it in the shape of a stick figure, available in a variety of different colors. When Shayla arrived outside of the house, she texted me and said “I’m not going to know which stick figure you are” and my reply was “the green one”. Imagine you are about to meet someone for the first time at a costume party where you don’t know anyone and there are 4 different colored stick figures walking around and all you know is that you’re looking for the green one. Needless to say, it’s always a funny story to tell and one that we will never forget.

Over the next 9 months, we spent every second together that we could. I was still working and living in Odessa and so we only saw eachother on the weekends. We met eachother’s family and got to know them with lots of quality time. My friends became her’s and her’s became mine. From skiing in colorado, to friendsgiving and christmas/holiday parties, to TTU mens’s basketball games and everything inbetween. All of our friends even made the trip to Lake LBJ for Shayla’s surprise 30th birthday party that I planned. Our friends and family mean everything to us and we couldn’t be happier that they’ve been there to see all of it. We’ve had so many amazing memories in such a short amount of time and we’re so excited for a lifetime more. I knew from the very beginning that Shayla was something special and it didn’t take me long to fall completley in love with her and realize that she’s my person and the one I want to spend the rest of my life with.

The day Matthew popped the question! I knew pretty early he would be my forever. So marriage and a ring had been talked about...but not a clue that it would happen on the day it did! Matt has loved surprising me since the day I met him...if you know me you know I don’t love them but I started loving them because he loved doing it! A few weeks prior he had told me we would be going on a camping trip the last weekend in July! Me trying to not ruin anything but thinking into it, I was like THIS IS IT!!!! I called and got a nail appointment for the Thursday before (the 30th) and started thinking about outfits to take so I could still look cute while camping! Ha In the meantime his parents Had asked us over for a cookout and had nonchalantly brought up that I could invite my mom, sister and her husband if they were free! Of course they were on board because they knew something that I didn’t! Mom and Kate (my little sister) had both brought up going to get our nails done. My nails were horrendous...but I turned them down because I had already made an appointment! Lol. I just thought they were trying to get me ready for the camping trip! That day Matt went over to his parents to help with a table his dad was building for the back porch. Little did I know he was doing a lot more than just that! God knew what was going on and made sure I got bored enough at the house by myself that I would just go ahead and paint my own nails considering only like four fingers had polish on them!

We got to his parents house had a great time talking and hanging out before eating dinner! We Had a great meal before all going back out on the back patio! As we were all talking Matt snuck behind me and got down on one knee and was holding out the ring of my dream’s!!! I was in total shock when I turned around...I thought for a second that he had fell down...this was supposed to be happening next weekend!!! With the biggest smile on his face and the ring box upside down, he asked me to be his wife! After telling him “baby flip the box around” I of course said yes yes yes!!!! Still being in shock and staring at the beautiful ring on my finger, I gave my soon to be husband a big kiss and turned around and saw my dad walking through the back door! That’s what I needed for it to all finally soak in...I’m marrying the man of my dreams!!!! My eyes filled up with tears and my heart was full! The only thing missing was close friends...but Matt was already a step ahead (as always) and one by one all of our friends started showing up! Once everyone had arrived, Matt got everyone’s attention and made a sweet speech thanking everyone for going out of their way to come and making our day that much more special. He then played the sweetest slideshow on the projector screen on the back porch with all of our pictures from the first day we met with our song playing in the background (I Prayed for you by Matt Stell). The proposal and everything Matt, his Family and mine did to make everything so special couldn’t have been any more perfect! Matthew and I are so blessed to have found each other! It will be the most special day to have our family and friends with us as we begin the next phase of our life together as “Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Harrison” on February 20th, 2021.