We're getting married! It's time to SHINE

We look forward to celebrating this day with our friends and family! We want this to be a fun and safe environment for everybody - we, as well as the Iron Manor, have our wedding guests' health as a top priority. We will be implementing the following precautions at our wedding: temperature testing and hand sanitizing before entering, social distancing at the ceremony, hand sanitizer at every table, and seating by family units at the reception. Masks are not required but they are strongly encouraged. With that in mind, please be aware of any underlying health conditions within your family. Please also be conscious of how you feel leading up to the event. Enough talk about COVID - let's get #OnCloudShine!

Early in the spring semester of our freshman year at Texas A&M University, I was invited over to the house of some close friends who would later become my roommates. They had befriended Anna towards the beginning of freshman year and had been spending some time with her here and there, but somehow I never crossed paths with her until this night. When I walked in, Anna was chatting with them in their kitchen wearing an oversized T-shirt with a giraffe on the front. Despite her comfy-casual attire, she was downright beautiful, and I managed to work that complement into our brief conversation. I left shortly afterwards, but not without getting her phone number, and I quickly expressed my interest in taking her on a date. The rest is history.

I had been contemplating all summer on how I would ask Anna to marry me. Her father had given me his blessing, and shortly afterwards I had purchased the ring, but I wanted to put a lot of thought into this night in order to make it as memorable and as special as possible. When July came around I had finally come up with a plan that would live up to those objectives. I told Anna that we would be traveling to Wimberley for a retirement celebration for my uncle on Saturday afternoon (plausible but completely false). She had her suspicions that our engagement may occur sometime that summer, but when I told her this facade she was completely thrown off. As we got closer to Wimberley on Friday evening, I told her we would have time for a dinner date and proceeded to take her to a beautiful destination restaurant nestled into the hills of a large ranch. Before dinner, we walked over to a scenic overlook framed with a stone archway which was just across the garden from the restaurant, and it was there that I asked. It was a moment and a feeling that I will never forget. After sharing some endearing words with her and placing the ring on her finger, our parents came out from where they were waiting nearby to surprise her and celebrate with us. My cheeks were sore from smiling by the end of the evening.