We're getting married!

Fresh out of college at my first board room meeting I remember thinking “that boy in the bright orange polo is pretty cute.” A year later I found myself (literally) running in the same circle as him. Some coworkers started a 6:00 AM Friday morning workout group. My friends called me crazy (Ahem, Nicole…) and said 6:00 AM was too early for just to meet some boy. That first morning the group met in a parking lot at Ball State it was down pouring the entire time. Austin showed off doing pushups and I kicked his butt during the run… It was pretty much the beginning of a Nicolas Sparks movie. It only took two more weeks of Facebook messages, instant messages, and awkwardly dropping by his cubical to get his number. I knew I needed to get to know this guy. If you know Austin, you know how much he loves baseball. After a few weeks of hanging out he took me to the Louisville Slugger museum. Austin spent AN HOUR in the gift shop nervously pacing and trying to fill out a form to get a custom baseball bat “for his dad”. Sensing my presence was making it worse, I made myself busy walking laps around the gift shop and eventually just went outside. After a while he came out with a gift bag and was clearly upset. He gave me a custom bat that said “Mackenzie Bontrager ~ Be Mine?” I made sure to say a very proud "yes!" before politely asking that we go back and get my name corrected.

Makenzie and I first met working at the same company in Muncie, IN around 5 years ago. Working on separate teams we had not cross paths until a group of us from work started getting together for a 6am cardio workout on Friday mornings. After a few weeks go by, Makenzie sends me a message asking what time our Friday workout is at, and all I am thinking is “Well, its every Friday at 6am, she knows that…I think this girl just wanted a reason to talk to me”. Well turns out I was right! We started hanging out, going out for pizza, ice cream, Taco Bell. You know, all those super healthy choice foods! She even started watching Game of Thrones with me which, was not her cup of tea did but she did it anyways. After hanging out for a several weeks I started thinking to myself, “I really like this girl and I want to ask her to be my girlfriend”. So, I planned a little road trip. That was the road trip that changed my life. I was going to ask her to be mine. I asked Makenzie if she wanted to go on a road trip with me down to Louisville because I wanted to see a country singer by the name of Billy Currington. She was not really into country music until she met me, but she started listening to prepare for the concert. Once we get down to Louisville, I tell her we MUST go to the Louisville Slugger Museum, because I LOVE baseball, she had never been, and we had time to burn before the concert. Little did she know this was my plan the whole time. We went through the museum tour and at the end, I purchased a miniature baseball bat that on it said “Makenzie Bontrager, Be Mine?” and she said yes! That small gift for her, turned out to be the best gift I ever gave. Fast forward 5 years to today, and here I am excited to marry my best friend and better half.