We're getting married!

How does anyone meet these days? We met online! When we swiped right, we had no idea that it would be the last swipe to matter. Ethan worked hard trying to prove to Nichole that a date would be worth it, but she was playing and would only message him back once a day because she was "busy". Finally, Ethan convinced Nichole to meet him for a drink at Play Wash Pint (a dog park that serves alcohol), but Ethan spent the whole date trying to keep Clyde from "flirting" with the other dogs. Luckily, the date was saved by good conversation during dinner at State of Confusion. As the first date came to a close, Nichole wondered why Ethan only gave her a side hug and didn't walk her to her car, but Ethan didn't know if Nichole even liked him. Somehow, we made it to our second date, dinner at STIR. However, Ethan was sure the second date (and potential relationship) was going to end abruptly when Nichole received an urgent phone call from her friend 5 minutes into dinner. Surprisingly, dinner continued and Nichole's friend (and now Maid of Honor) Elise joined us at dinner! Elise livened up the conversation by interrogating Ethan about his intentions. After dinner, we shared our first kiss in the parking lot, where we were greeted by a yell of: "They're making out!" (funny enough, Ethan knew the girl who yelled at us and acted like he had no idea who it was). The second date led to more and more frequent dates until we "officially" started dating on April 26th and told each other we were in love on July 4th.

A few months into dating, Nichole started talking about moving in with her brother in Nashville to save money. The thought of seeing Nichole less frequently made Ethan think hard about the future, and he realized he wanted nothing more than to make her his wife (it would take Nichole a few more months to come around to the idea). Thankfully, we didn't have to overcome the obstacle of a long-distance relationship, but the seed was planted, and the idea of marriage began to bloom. Months passed, and our love grew, but Ethan encountered a problem as he began his search for the perfect diamond: None of the diamonds he encountered seemed good enough for Nichole! Finally, after an intense search, Ethan found the diamond he was looking for and could focus on the proposal. We had decided we wanted a small, private proposal so that we could share the intimate moment together, and what better place than one of our favorite local restaurants with beautiful string lights in the parking lot? Like many other Thursday nights, we decided to go to dinner at Station House on January 20th. However, as Nichole would soon find out, this would not be a typical Thursday night dinner. After dinner (which included a bottle of wine and of course, crème brûlée), we began our short walk to the car, but when Nichole reached for the car door handle, Ethan stopped her and dropped to a knee. Under the romantic string lights and without anyone else around, Ethan confessed his love and asked Nichole to marry him. His heart felt like it would leap out of his chest as he waited for her answer... What would she say? She said YES!!