In 2023, Quinn moved from Austin to Fort Worth, Texas to attend her second year of Mercy Culture Spiritual Leadership School in person. At the same time, Brighton was also in his second year of SLS in Fort Worth—though they didn’t know it yet. They officially met on October 7, 2023, at a market near downtown Fort Worth. Quinn was there as a vendor selling her crochet and knitted creations when Brighton stopped by during setup and asked if she was Daniel’s sister. (Daniel was in Brighton’s men’s small group through SLS and had been talking about his wife’s sister, Quinn—who also happened to be in Brighton’s class.) Brighton introduced himself, and that moment marked the end of one era and the beginning of another. That fall, Quinn joined the baking team at Mercy Culture Church and eventually took over leadership, baking cookies each Sunday to serve the serve team. Meanwhile, Brighton continued serving in hospitality. Both faithfully followed where God placed them, growing in leadership, being stretched, and falling more in love with the Lord. They graduated with their SLS class in May 2024 and soon after began internships at Mercy Culture Church. Brighton interned with the hospitality department and eventually became the lead of the entire department. Quinn interned with the family department, leading communications for students and kids ministry, while still serving as the baking team lead. As they served together each Sunday in the hospitality kitchen, their connection grew. Brighton led his culinary team preparing meals for the serve team, while Quinn led her baking team making what many considered the best cookies in the church. Quinn admired the way Brighton led with strength, humility, and gentleness—but kept those feelings between herself and the Lord, choosing to guard her heart. Brighton thought Quinn was cool… and that was about it (at first). In May 2025, Brighton was leading hospitality for a Mercy Culture women’s conference, hosting and feeding thousands of women and guests. He asked Quinn to lead the after-party team on the first night—an assignment that included baking 800 cookies from scratch and coordinating a team of 30+ people to serve desserts and fruit. Quinn said yes. They worked long hours together leading up to the conference. After the first day of conference and the after-party, Quinn was cleaning the kitchen, tired and worn out from the long day, when Brighton came in to check on things. In that moment, everything changed. Brighton realized his heart had fully turned toward Quinn and knew he wanted to marry her. Around the same time, Quinn found her feelings growing too. (Especially once Brighton started making her tea.) Their friendship quickly grew as they began getting to know each other during lunch breaks at work (church) and over text on the weekends. During the final days of the internship season, Quinn began texting Brighton a daily countdown. Brighton assumed it was counting down to the end of internship—but it wasn’t. It was actually the number of days Brighton had left to officially ask Quinn out before she ended their little “friendship thing.” Each day as the numbers dropped, Quinn prayed the Lord would help Brighton hurry up and make their friendship something more. On the final day, when the countdown hit zero, Brighton asked her what the countdown was for, especially since internship had ended the day before. Quinn told him to ask the Lord. When Brighton did, he felt the Lord clearly say to be assertive and ask her. On June 2, Brighton took Quinn to a small French restaurant in Fort Worth and asked if he could pursue her hand in marriage. She said yes—and the rest of the story begins on April 18, 2026!