We’re getting married!

Racy: It was August 2014. I had recently moved back home to Chattanoga and transferred into UTC. Lucky for me, my best friend and bridesmaid Jasmine Milsaps was attending UTC too so I wouldn't be alone. She wanted me to meet everyone before classes officially started back so she invited me out to dinner with the group. I of course had heard stories about everyone so I wasn't too worried that I wouldn't get along with everyone. We all met at Fuji and had a great time. It wasn't until we were all leaving that I noticed the other very tall person in the friend group, Peter. Peter: I got back from Afghanistan in June 2014. Before I left, I was at UTC and found a group of friends, and when I came back Jas invited me out to dinner with our mutual friends at Fuji. After dinner, I realized that Racy was endangering my "tall person status" and thus I was instantly hit with an urge to sweep her knee to assert my "tall person" dominance....5 years later apparently she found a way to metaphorically sweep my leg.

We celebrated a mutual friend's birthday in September 2014. At one point, a few of us were talking in the dining room. I don't remember what was said, but a heavily intoxicated Peter said something messed up and I shot him the "I may actually kill you" face. He knew he messed up so he said he should be slapped. I slapped once and the response was "didn't feel it". I slapped him a second time and got the same response. So I did what anyone else would do, I said "alright fine" and reared back and slapped him for a third time. That one he felt. It was at that time that Peter thought "Wow! She actually listened and why do I feel like I'm going to feel this in the morning?" My favorite part of our story is that during this night, we each went up to Jasmine and told her "I don't know why, but I think I'm attracted to Peter" and "I'm attracted to Racy". We both told her not to say anything and being the best friend she is to both of us, she did not say a word until 5 months later when we started dating.

We attended separate Super Bowl parties. I was rooting for the Seahawks and Peter was rooting for the Patriots. He bet me, that if the Patriots won he got to take me out. I agreed and we had our first date the following Tuesday. *I still would have gone on the date even if the Patriots lost.*

We have always been very open with each other about what we want out of this relationship. Being friends for 6 months before our first date, we didn't have the typical first date conversations like "where are you from, what do you do, what's your favorite color, etc.?" Our first date conversations were more along the lines of "what do you want out of this, do you want to get married, have kids, etc.?" Although we had these conversations on the first date, we never felt rushed to make anything happen. It was just nice to be on the same page of where this could go. There have been several times during our relationship where we have asked the other one to marry us. We have always said yes, but I never took it to be serious because I mean come on, we all want that ring on our finger and the question to be asked on one knee. This brings us to mid October 2018. Peter asked me to marry him and just like all the other times before, i said yes, but it wouldn't be official until I had a ring. Two weeks later, my best friend since first grade, Grovenia, was able to come into town and it just so happened to be a holiday...her birthday! So the morning of her birthday, November 3rd, a group of us, including Peter went out to brunch to celebrate. I didn't know this until afterwards, but Peter had the ring, but decided not to propose at brunch because he didn't want to take away from Grovenia's birthday. It wasn't until later that night after I cooked us dinner, we ate, and I wanted to go change into my pjs and use the bathroom, that Peter decided to make it official. I kept saying i wanted to go change, but he wouldn't let me. He said I looked good and he didn't want me to change yet. I said, but I really have to pee so you need to let me go. He then gave me a hug and coming out of the hug, he knelt down and asked me to marry him. I of course said yes, gave him a kiss and a hug, and then happily ran off to the bathroom.