A Real Life Love Story

We are so excited to have you a part of our big day! We hope that all your questions can be answered through this website. We understand traveling to a different state can be difficult but we'd love for you to come celebrate with us. Below you can read about the beginning of our relationship and how Daniel proposed. The above tabs will take you to important travel information, our registry, gives you a sneak peek at our wedding party, allows you to get a glimpse of our relationship through pictures and answers to common questions in additional information. We are so excited to share our story and for you to witness the love we have for each other!

We both attended the University of Kentucky and were enrolled in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC). Yet despite that, we never got around to hanging out till senior year. We knew of each other and even had Army military science class together both junior and senior year, but our degrees and social circles differed. Tori actually remembers the first time we held a longish conversation. It was junior year and she being older, was one of the few juniors who could go out to the bars. I, myself, fall to the younger crowd by not turning 21 until my senior year. She and my roommates were heading out so she came over to grab them. My roommates weren't ready at the moment so she sat in the living room with me. I had the tv on and she asked me what I was watching, I proceeded to tell her...the History Channel. Fast forward to senior year. Tori, myself, and both of our roommates constantly made an effort to hang out on Thursday nights. We frequented our favorite bar called Stagger Inn. It features live bands that most of the time play country music (my favorite)! One night the song Cover Me Up by Morgan Wallen came on. Tori stated how much she loves this song so I proceeded to ask her to dance. You know those silly Rom Com movies where everyone is standing still except those two individuals that are dancing in the middle of everyone and you think how impractical is this?? Well, that is exactly what it felt like the first time I danced with Tori. We tried to negate our feelings for each other as truly who would have thought of us as a couple (apparently everyone). After realizing the attraction we had for each other could not be ignored any longer and despite that even though we were leaving college in two short months, we finally decided to date. Fun Fact: Tori likes to truly say she won me over. As one night, she told me she wished there were more Daniel McHales out there. Little did she or I know that this Daniel McHale would become all hers!!

Daniel and I had been dating since March and right off the bat, I knew this was the man I was going to marry. I can picture the exact moment so clearly. I think it took Daniel a little longer to know but I'm so lucky that he did!! Apparently, Daniel had the proposal planned for a while. We hadn't seen each other since I moved down to Texas in September. The first time we were able to see each other after my move was during Veterans Day weekend. During this weekend, we decided to go out with all my new Texas friends so that Daniel could meet all the beautiful people that were now in my life. We ended up walking around Downtown San Antonio. I had linked arms with Tita and Lauren and we were walking a good distance in front of Delilah and Daniel. Delilah (now) tells me that Daniel watching Tita, Lauren and I giggle, looked at Delilah and said I'm going to ask Tori to marry me. He did that very thing the next time I saw him. I picked him up from his late flight on December 27. We grabbed pizzas to eat before heading to bed as I had to be up early the next day for work. After getting off work we had planned to do some errands and then head out to a nice dinner (this was our Christmas present to each other). I told Daniel why don't we get dressed now, go do the errands, and then head out to dinner. This to me seemed more logical as the errands were next to where we wanted to eat. However, Daniel very strongly disliked the idea. I continued to ask him why (I mean I am stubborn) but he never really gave me an answer. I ended up coming home and we proceeded to get ready for the evening. We were laughing and having honestly the best time just being back together. Secretly Daniel was texting his mom the whole time! He told her that he didn't want to wait anymore and wanted to just do it now. That it just felt right. We proceeded to head downstairs and out the door for dinner. As I turned around to lock my house I realized Daniel was on a knee... Okay so my first thought, was that he was hurt. Now I know, a man on his knee normally means one thing. Well, to my credit, he had been complaining about his knees hurting due to them being bent for so long from the flight the previous night. My head started to spin and I was thinking of where I could take him, how could I get him into the car, etc. Then he starts telling me how much I mean to him. Now I'm like OH SHOOT.....he thinks I'm mad. I try to go through the whole day to see what could have given him this perception. FINALLY, it hit me that he was proposing. Well, I mean you're invited to our wedding, so as you know I said YES! It was honestly the most perfect way he could have proposed. It was intimate and plays perfectly to our personalities. I'm one lucky woman to have been asked by him!

Yes, Tori and I are already married! By the time our big wedding in June rolls around we will already have been married for a year, (lucky me!). Both Tori and I have hectic training schedules with the Army and can't take any weekends off that we wish. Finding weekends to visit each other is very difficult. We've fought through being long distance; while it was hard, our love grew. Since we wish to be stationed together at our next duty assignment we needed to be legally married and have the documentation submitted to the Army in order to make that happen. Constantly looking at our calendars and trying to find a weekend to get married was frustrating and we quickly realized we had to make the time ourselves. I had to argue for my right to get a weekend pass that aligned with a small gap in my training, but in the end was able to fly down to San Antonio for a weekend. While this decision was partly logistical, Tori and I were so excited and our hearts were so full with love and joy. With only a few friends and a court clerk, we got legally married on March 9th, 2023! It was exactly as we wanted, small, quiet, and meaningful. It makes us even more excited to see all our family and friends and to celebrate with them on June 15th.