Our story starts freshman year at UCA. Payton was quite literally the girl next door. Our dorm was set up suite style so each room housed 4 students that shared a bathroom and living room. We quickly formed a squad between her and her roommates and me and 2 of my friends. We all bonded over late night hang outs, wallyball (Payton's least favorite part of freshman year), and ping pong. We became an inseparable friend group, hanging out every day! Naturally, there became closer friends within our group and Payton and I were one of those. We just naturally meshed. She also proofread my papers and had a better meal plan than me that she shared. There was talk of us dating, but I just wanted to enjoy my first year of college. But she definitely had a little crush on me! And who could blame her! As our first year ended, the friend group started to dissolve. With some planning to transfer and everyone moving out of the dorms, there was a lot of uncertainty of if we'd even see each other next year. However, Payton was determined to not let our friendship die. I was preparing to spend a month in Africa and she wanted to send my snapchat streaks. So when I came back we stayed in touch. Our sophomore year we still hung out and our friendship began to grow. Honestly, I knew I was starting to like her by the end of that fall semester, but I was scared. We were so close I knew that it wouldn't take long for our relationship to become serious, and that scared me. So I delayed, but it was only delaying the inevitable. That summer after sophomore year I came back from a Missions trip and decided I didn't care if our relationship got serious, she was my best friend and I liked her! And it's been the start of our happily ever after since then. It's hard to pick a certain time of when I knew she was "The One." Our friendship has always been special. She's been there for me since we met. She's my best friend, my confidant, my supporter, my love. My bride!

As fate would have it, we ended up being dorm neighbors our freshman year of college. We quickly became friends and soon enough we found ourselves hanging out almost every single day. I found myself enjoying being around him and missing the times when he wasn't there. He truly made every moment fun, no matter what we were doing. I loved how respectful he was to everyone he met, how he could make anyone laugh, and that he was probably one of the smartest people I had met. He was definitely the guy you would want to take home to meet your parents ;) We grew as friends for almost 2 more years with constant questions about when we were going to date, but we were worried about it possibly ruining our friendship. He *finally* decided to make things official on the Fourth of July in 2018. The next couple of years we grew together as a couple. We went on countless adventures and to many weddings together. Everything is more fun when you are doing it with someone you love—even just going to the grocery store. We went on and finished out our undergraduate degrees at UCA and began getting ready for graduate school—we even got a puppy together! Fast forward to October 2020 when we had a photoshoot scheduled that he had gotten me as a gift. He convinced me to recreate an old picture where we were standing back to back (you can see the original photo and the photo right before he popped the question under the photos tab) which is when he got down on one knee. I was totally shocked when I turned around! He may have forgotten what he was going to say in the moment, but of course I still said YES!