Paige: "We met at a Tuesday Night Dinner hosted by our college's Christian Club called Chi Alpha. Patch had just transferred to Embry-Riddle during COVID, and I was just starting to go to Chi Alpha. I remember walking in, seeing a tall blonde, and thinking "You're definitely new here". I got in the car afterwards, called my mom, told her that I had met a cute boy, and debated finding him on Instagram. He made my search hard, considering his profile photo was the back of his head :-). After only talking to each other a little at the dinner, COVID cancelled the rest of those gatherings for the year. Disappointed about the dinners, I wanted to let Patch know he had a friend in town. I reached out to him saying, "Hey! I know you're new to Embry Riddle, but if you ever want a friend to hang out with, just let me know!". He says he freaked out and immediately texted his friend, Alexis, for advice. He suggested going up to the top of a ridge and watching the sunset for our first time hanging out (romantic!). Little did I know, we’d end up just sitting and talking for hours on end. Though it started as a sunset hangout, it soon turned into a stargazing date. Immediately, I fell in love with his heart for the Lord, his immense love for his family, and his lighthearted, witty personality. From then on, we became the best of friends. We look back on our exchanges from three years ago, and we smile at how far we've come. They were simple, pure, and wholesome messages and thoughts that just show how much we adored each other from the start. I can’t imagine my life without this sweet man. Blessed is an understatement. I love you infinitely, Blue."

Patch: "The proposal was definitely an adventure in and of itself. Luckily, I was able to receive a load of help from my family and the Thompson family to execute this crazy plan! To be honest, choosing the way I’d propose was difficult since I had loads of ideas. We had many family discussions about the logistics of my ideas, which each involved a significant amount of variables. I wanted to make sure the date and location both had some significance. After thorough thought and debating, my family and I agreed on Tahoe for the location! We then had to hash out the specifics of getting up to Tahoe. A particular dilemma we had was figuring out how Paige and I would get away from everyone else... with a car. I came up with the plan to use the cover of both my birthday and our dating anniversary, making sure Paige had no idea why we needed to be on our own. She ended up thinking nothing of it, which was great! Nevertheless, I was beginning to internally stress out, because the final moving pieces were now out of my control. My brother, Will, was secretly flying up to Reno that morning and driving a rental car to the proposal location. He then would hike to the scenic outlook so he could secretly photograph the proposal! The morning of, while Will was flying, Paige and I stole the car to drive into Tahoe City. I took Paige on the scenic route along the Truckee River, stopping to walk for a little while. I also brought my drone along for this, taking videos at a couple different locations. My coverup for this was that I was trying to get some content for a helicopter business that’s currently in the works. So after walking the Truckee River, we made our way into town to eat lunch right on the lake. At this point, my heart was racing, but luckily I kept my cool well enough to not let Paige figure out my master plan. We had some delicious food, slowly making our way over towards the trail head. Right before heading over to the trail, I got a text from Will saying that he was on his way up. It could not have been timed more perfectly! After getting to the trail head, we started hiking up as well. Meanwhile, I was internally freaking out with both fear and excitement. I mean, it is probably one of the biggest, if not THE biggest question a guy will ask in his life. After what felt like an hour of hiking, but was probably only 30 minutes or less, we were getting close to the top. I spotted Will in his disguise, and Paige still had no idea! When we reached the top, I pulled out the drone one more time. I told Paige to go pose on the rock, where I would come join her after a few photos. Then, I raced up there, gave her a hug, posed with her a couple times, and dropped down onto my knee. At this point, Paige could not believe it was happening. She started crying, which completely distracted me from the speech I had planned the whole time. However, despite now not remembering the exact words I said to Paige, she said YES! During this whole process, Will managed to stay hidden, and he captured some amazing photos that you see on this website! So thank you, Will! After some tears, smiles, and laughs, Will made himself known and took a few more photos. Paige couldn't believe it. She was in utter shock. We then sat up on the rock overlooking Lake Tahoe, savoring that special moment. Calling friends and family to tell them the news soon followed. When Paige tried calling her parents, they didn't pick up. Little did she know, they were also flying up that day to meet us back at the house! When we got home, Paige broke out into more joyful tears when she saw her parents. We then celebrated with a nice dinner and had a wonderful rest of the weekend. I will never be able to thank my parents, grandparents, Paige's parents, and Will for spending their weekend going up to Tahoe and helping put together an experience Paige and I will never forget! So with that being said, THANK YOU!"