Our story began on a late summer evening in Colorado, at a Diamond Rio concert in the middle of…well, nowhere. We were briefly introduced by friends of friends and then went about our night—but little did I know, I had already caught Cole’s eye. He recognized me from a long-forgotten dating site match and was determined to reconnect. Cole took a shot and messaged me out of the blue. The twist? I didn’t remember him at all—not from the dating app, and not even from the concert! To make it even more confusing, the friend who introduced us had used his alter-ego name instead of “Cole.” Somehow, I agreed to a date anyway. Here’s where it gets really funny: Cole had told his friend Chris that he was going on a date that night. So Chris and his fiancée (now wife) Peyton decided to stake out the restaurant three hours early to “wait” for their friend and his mystery girl. Cole arrived first, and when I walked in, the whole thing turned into an unexpected double date. We had such a great time that we ended up hanging out at their place the very next night. It only took about four more dates before I finally went to dinner without Cole’s friends, but by then, we were inseparable. It didn’t matter what we were doing or who we were with—we just wanted to be together. Not much has changed since then. Cole and I bring out the best in each other, pushing each other to grow and challenge ourselves. From small-town Granby to Santa Barbara and now Santa Cruz, we’ve tackled life’s ups and downs together. Once we settled back in Santa Cruz, everything seemed to click: we were on track in our careers, got a kitty, and finally—despite me being ready long before—Cole proposed on December 20th, 2025, on the beach in Monterey. And that’s how a random night at a Colorado concert turned into a lifetime adventure.