Our story begins in 2007, when we were both 13. We met at our tennis academy, and we've been friends ever since. We grew up playing tennis together, and we both played tennis at our respective colleges. We were in the same friend group from back home, so whenever we were on breaks during college and post-grad, we would come back to Austin and hang out. But always in a group setting. We stayed that way until four years ago, when Liam finally got the courage to ask Mikaela out (he'd liked her since middle school, but it took him 15 years to muster the courage). He asked her to hang out one-on-one. She was suspicious, because he'd never done this before — and rightfully so, because when she met him at his apartment, he told her he liked her, and had liked her for years. In response, she said "Let's go get a drink." It wasn't exactly the response he'd hoped for, but it also wasn't necessarily a rejection. We went on our first date at Bouldin Acres, where we talked about what us being together would look like since Liam was living in Austin at the time and Mikaela was in dental school in Phoenix. He told her he would move there and she thought that was a little bold, but agreed (after some thought) to give things a try. We gave it that try, and a year later Liam moved to Phoenix. Since then, we've had a year in Phoenix growing, loving, laughing, and hiking the Grand Canyon together, followed by a year of external dental school rotations in America's nooks and crannies. We spent weeks at a time in Greeley, CO; Butte, MT; Albuquerque, NM; Tahlequah, OK; and Ganado, AZ, with trips to Chicago, LA, and many wonderful trips back to Austin in between. In March 2024, we made one of those trips back to Austin. We ate, played putt putt at Peter Pan, and enjoyed each moment together. On what Mikaela thought was our way to meet some friends at Odd Duck, Liam pointed out a sign that said there was a pop-up photo booth nearby, crazily enough, EXACTLY AT THAT TIME (spoiler: Liam put the sign there). Mikaela was game, as she loves any and all photo booths. Liam asked Mikaela to marry him in the photo booth while the camera captured the moment. We have a photo strip of Mikaela saying yes, as well as many of us celebrating after (we had the photo booth for a full hour). We then celebrated by meeting her family and friends at Bouldin Acres, where we had our first date. We wrapped up the night with a slideshow and a private screening of You've Got Mail with our friends and fam. We've had a joyous and eventful year since. Mikaela graduated and became Dr. Pope (thus cementing Liam's dream of becoming the Future Mr. Dr. Pope), and we moved to North Carolina, where Mikaela works at a community health clinic treating high-need patients. We're enjoying building a life together and exploring everything North Carolina has to offer. We're so excited to make the arrangement permanent, and we can't wait for ya'll to come celebrate with us :) - Mikaela and Liam