Stephanie and Tanner had been working for the same company in Bakersfield, California for a few years, but had never met each other. They had heard about each other from mutual friends, and one mutual friend even thought that Stephanie and Tanner would like each other! Cupid love story? Sorry to disappoint, but no. This friend never introduced them. Fail. In April of 2015, Stephanie and Tanner were each invited to go on a camping trip in Yosemite National Park with a big group of friends - Stephanie with her girlfriends, and Tanner with his buddies. It was 75 degrees and sunny the first night, and Stephanie was a happy camper in her flip flops and shorts. Tanner showed up late at night, drinking beer and playing games with the guys. Everyone went to sleep, only to be woken up early morning by 1 foot of snow! All the tents had caved in! Stephanie stepped outside in her flip flops to dust off the snow from tent, and realized how unprepared she was for this camping trip. Everyone was super nice, sharing boots and gloves with all the girls who had *ahem* forgotten theirs. The best way to get warm was to get moving and get your blood flowing. So everyone decided to continue with the planned hike for that day. Stephanie and Tanner finally met each other on this hike. They ended up hiking next to each other and talking the entire hike. And, let me tell you, it was NOT glamorous, AT ALL. Stephanie had no makeup, and completely ratted, tangled hair. Tanner had on sweatpants that were soaked* from the snow (*and they were mysteriously only soaked in the crotch area, so it looked like he had some sort of accident...hmmmm). But nevertheless, Tanner and Stephanie just talked and talked. And we really can't remember what we talked about, but it was easy. It felt natural. And most importantly, it was distracting Stephanie from the thought that her toes might have to be amputated from frostbite.

For Stephanie, it was love at first sight. It wasn't the prettiest sight (for either person!), but hey, if you love them at their worst, then you deserve their best, right? For Tanner, well, he was oblivious. The girls were frozen, so they decided to bail out on the trip and head home early. Stephanie casually, and probably awkwardly, hovered around waiting Tanner to ask for her phone number. But he didn't. *Cue sad trombone... wah wah wah* Flash forward a few weeks later... Tanner and Stephanie run into each other at a Happy Hour event in Bakersfield. They start chatting again, and finally Tanner asks for Stephanie's phone number. Their unofficial first date was going to the movie Pitch Perfect 2. Their first date was going to sushi dinner and a car race at the Bakersfield Speedway. Tanner had used a Groupon for dinner, and had free tickets for the race. (For those of you who know about Tanner's coupon-ing addiction, you are probably laughing that our first real date was all coupons.) And the real, official, first date was at a local restaurant called Steak & Grape on July 2, 2015, when Tanner asked Stephanie to be his girlfriend. And now, Steak & Grape is a yearly tradition.

Tanner and Stephanie planned a nice vacation to the Bahamas Atlantis resort with Tanner's parents. And hence the reason the proposal was so unexpected since the parents were there, haha! Stephanie was not expecting a proposal on this trip at all, so she was completely unaware of all the times Tanner almost got caught with the ring. 1) Before the trip even happened, Tanner had purchased the ring, came home from work, & the store sent him pictures of the ring. Stephanie was actually using Tanner's Apple computer, which is connected to his iMessages. The texts saying "congrats" to Tanner & the pictures of the ring popped up in the corner of the computer, but somehow Steph didn't see! Tanner was just frozen and making a weird face, and Steph was like "what's wrong with you?" thinking he was sick. 2) He had to take the ring through airport security, and was worried they were going to make him pull it out to look at it, but luckily they didn't. Whew. 3) In the hotel room, Tanner was storing the ring in the safe. Stephanie actually looked in the safe multiple times, when the ring was in there, but somehow didn't see the ring because the black box blended into the black felt material in the safe. Since Tanner and Steph were staying with Tanner's parents in the same hotel room, Tanner's parents randomly (or so Steph thought random) decided to get their own hotel room one night to "give them some privacy". Steph insisted they didn't need privacy since Tanner and Steph already lived together, but they got their own room anyway. Tanner convinced Steph to get dressed up and ready before dinner to "take some photos on the beach". Tanner was being the perfect #InstagramBoyfriend taking photos of Steph. And here Steph was bossing Tanner around: "get this angle better", "zoom in", etc. Little did she know this was going to be the proposal! Tanner got down on one knee, and asked Stephanie to marry him. She couldn't believe it! And she said YES!