Sydney and Nick met in high school marching band. They quickly became friends and started walking to rehearsal together. They would talk about everything and knew pretty soon that there was a strong connection between them. After about a month of talking and hundreds of text messages sent back and forth, Nick decided to ask Sydney to be his girlfriend. He planned to ask at the final band event of the season, but Sydney got impatient and asked him on a hike to Sky Meadows first. Now, nine years and numerous hikes later, they are ready to tie the knot!

Nick proposed to Sydney on a crisp April morning on a mountain top near Blacksburg, Virginia. He gathered about twenty of their friends and told Sydney they were taking part in the annual Marching Virginia's trumpet section hike. Four miles later, they all made it to the top of McAfee Knob. Nick brought Sydney to the edge of overlook and pretended to pose her for a picture looking out toward the horizon. When she turned around he was on one knee. Even though she knew she had 4 more miles to hike back down, Sydney never stopped smiling.