When I got to LSU and joined my sorority, Chi Omega, the first friend I made was Anna Wittmann. We quickly became best friends and then roommates. She would bring me to her hometown of Pass Christian, Mississippi often. (Little did I know at the time that it would become my home a few years later.) The summer going into our senior year of college, Anna's older sister was getting married and I was attending the wedding with a few other sorority sisters. Sitting in the church before the ceremony, I turned around and saw Carson walk in. I knew I had to talk to him. Carson was there attending because his best friend is Anna's twin brother, Kade. As the night proceeded, we were inseparable and he told me to come back to town next weekend. The following Friday I was on the road headed straight to him and I have never looked back. That whirlwind of a summer ended and I went back to LSU and finished my senior year, while he was at USM and driving to Baton Rouge every weekend. Our love story is so special because of the people who brought us together. It truly feels like there was an invisible string tying us together all along. Thank you to the Wittmann twins, our very best friends, who brought us together.

Carson proposed on my parents front porch in Pass Christian, MS, on the night that was supposed to be his birthday party. They were able to throw me off by having both of our families over for a birthday dinner that evening. I had previously tried to take a picture outside with Carson earlier in the night, but we never did. So once our loved ones were all together, he asked me to walk outside to take a picture since we had not yet. I told him it was too dark outside, but he insisted. Once we walked through the front doors, there were candles, beautiful white poinsettias, and his late mother, Candace Rogers, mirror facing us. On the mirror it said, "Mackie, will you marry me?" It was an immediate yes. After he got off of his knee, Carson told me we needed to go to the backyard. Once we got through our family inside, the backyard was filled with all of our best friends. Nothing could have been more special than that night and our people being there to celebrate.