We first met at James Charles Winery, nestled in the hills of the Shenandoah Valley, a place we both called home since childhood. It was late summer of 2017, and we were enjoying wine with our separate groups of friends. At the time, I didn't think much of our distant subtle eye-glancing encounters that happened that day, until I got a friend request and a message from Cody later that week. We had plenty of mutual friends together after all, so how we did not meet sooner, beats me! Before we knew it, our daily exchanges of "how are you today?" turned into paragraph conversations where we talked about our dreams, aspirations, hobbies, and everything under the sun – especially our shared passion for cars and the great outdoors. We quickly became best friends! I love that six years later, we are still each others best friends and never get tired of each other. Our journey together has been filled with endless memorable moments: From driving through a snowstorm to meet each other at TGI Fridays for a friends birthday celebration, to getting kicked out of Bear Chase Brewery because our casual date turned into a night of deep conversation that went well past closing hours. I treasure all of the many spontaneous hiking and camping adventures we’ve had, giving us both the opportunity to connect in our love for seeing new places. We’ve experienced countless adrenaline pumping wheeling excursions in the 4runner together, and enjoyed making new friends, cooking and eating great food, and just living every day in the moment – it didn't take long for both of us to realize that we were each other's soulmates. I could not imagine my life without him.

It was a cool, rainy Saturday morning, and Cody suggested that we get up, get outside, and go on a hike. We chose Big Schloss, which has always been one of our favorite places to visit when we want to get away for a while and enjoy nature. In fact, it was the first hike we had ever done together, 4 years prior to this venture! I never suspected that Cody was carrying such a big secret with him the entire hike, which looking back now, makes sense why we didn't do much talking on our way up. :) When we got to the top, the morning fog started to fade. We reached the cross bridge to the overlook just as the rain stopped and the sun broke through the clouds. The timing was impeccable! Before I knew it, I turned around to ask Cody to get a picture, and he was down on one knee with a ring in his hand, asking me to marry him. Completed shocked, the first words out of my mouth were, "Are you SERIOUS!?"... like, yes Rachel, duh.... why else would this man be down on one knee?! So I immediately corrected myself and said YES OF COURSE and proceeded to cry for the next 20 minutes and take sweaty, red eyed selfies and pictures, trying my best to capture the raw moment. We were in our happy place in more ways than one. It was a life event neither of us will ever forget!