From Gabby's perspective: We briefly met in college when Nathan was living in the same dorm as my brother. We then reconnected a few years after college when I showed up at the Young Professionals community group at what was Brentwood Church at the time. The next week, several people from community group were going out for ice cream at Mister Goodies. I noticed that Nathan sat down next to me pretty quickly when the person who was originally sitting there got up. Nathan was trying to organize a group of people to go out for tacos on National Taco Day the next day. Instead of just giving his phone number to everyone, he asked each person to put their phone number in his phone and that is how he slyly got my phone number. We both got tacos with the group the next day and things took off from there! From Nate's Perspective: I remember meeting Gabby back in college once, because as she mentioned, her brother was on my dorm. Well fast forward about 6 years and I see this girl walk into the YoPro group on a Tuesday night, and I automatically recognized her as Jake's sister. I didn't want to walk up and be "that guy" that goes "hey remember me from years ago when we met once". So I waited for the right moment and it turns out my friend Kelly went up to say hi and I used that moment to re-introduce myself. Thankfully she did remember me from college and I got to avoid that awkward moment. Skip ahead another week and it is October 3rd and another Tuesday at YoPro. Afterward, a group of us went to Mr. Goodies for some ice cream and the talk of national taco day (October 4th) started. I decided to use this opportunity to get Gabby's number. Now no one was able to settle on what they wanted to do for national taco day, so I decided to "take charge" and told everyone, if they wanted to get tacos, that I was going to pass my phone around and they would put their numbers in my phone. And that plan worked because my phone passed around and Gabby put her number in.

From Gabby's perspective: Two days after National Taco Day, Nathan and I had our first date. It was very casual and I thankfully didn't even have time to be nervous. I had just ordered my iced coffee and sat down outside at my favorite coffee shop to do homework when Nathan texted me and asked if I wanted to get tacos at this place in town that neither of us had ever been (yes, we love tacos and the beginning of our relationship was very much based around tacos!). He was already about to leave to head to the taco place so I quickly put my stuff away, forgot about my homework, and got tacos with him. We ended up talking for hours at the taco place and somehow ended up back at his apartment so I could meet his dog Fitz and watch Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (I'm not sure how he convinced me to watch that). I remember texting Kathleen (MOH) as I was leaving to meet Nathan at his place and saying "SOS - I think I'm on a date and I'm not sure how I got here." Needless to say, we had a great time getting to know one another that night and we soon had another date scheduled. From Nate's perspective: So a couple days after national taco day, I felt like I had not gotten my fill of tacos and wanted some more. It's around 4 in the afternoon and I am at home playing Destiny 2 on Xbox and thinking about where I want to go get tacos. I am also texting Gabby at this time for a little bit and thought "why not shoot your shot" and asked her if she wanted to join me in getting tacos. Somehow she said yes and so I shut my Xbox off and went to meet her at Locos Tacos. We ended up sitting and talking there for hours and eventually got onto the topic of Star Wars. It turned out she had not seen Rogue One (she had the wrong movie above) yet and without thinking, I mentioned it was on Netflix and asked if she wanted to come see it. Again, I have no idea how or why but she said yes and she came back, met my dog Fitz, and we watched Star Wars. Tacos and Star Wars are a great first date.

From Gabby's perspective: One of my absolute favorite places to go is the Drive Through Animal Safari Park in Virginia. It just brings me so much joy and Nathan had taken me there for the first time on my 25th birthday and I have always described it as a life highlight since then. The day Nathan proposed, I originally had my suspicions but he had me totally convinced it wasn't happening that day. It was the second weekend of the season that the park was open and we had been planning to go for weeks. When we got there, we drove through the park and then got out to do the walking portion of the park. The very last part of the park, there is a platform where you can feed the giraffes. I LOVE feeding the giraffes and so Nathan and I headed up to the platform and hoped that the giraffes would come up to the platform for a feeding. Unfortunately, they never came up, but to my surprise, Nathan gave me a really sweet speech, got down on one knee, and proposed there on the platform. It was such a thoughtful proposal and meant so much that he did it in a place that is so special to me. When we got back into Lynchburg, he had a surprise engagement party at my house and most of our closest family and friends were there to celebrate with us! It was such a special day! From Nate's perspective: Here is a little background into the planning: So I knew for awhile that I wanted to propose at the safari, however I knew if it was too spontaneous to go there, or if I "planned" the outing only a week or two out, she would know it was coming. So I had to make plans to go about 7 weeks early and then spent the next 7 weeks selling and convincing that the proposal was not that day. And it worked because I even had Emily and LeeAnna on my side telling her it wasn't happening that day. Saying they knew when it was really happening. It was a great group effort that tricked Gabby and lead to a great surprise for her. We're so excited to celebrate this next chapter in our lives with you!