{How We Met} As embarrassing as it may seem, Stephen and Ashley matched on Mutual. After years of bad dates and giving up on online dating platforms multiple times, Mutual was the app that finally came through for both of them. The crazy part was the timing! Ashley lives in Virginia and happened to be in Utah for about 2-3 weeks visiting family when she decided to download Mutual just to see what would happen since she wasn't having luck with Mutual in Virginia. The last Friday Ashley was in Utah was the day Stephen and Ashley matched. From the get go, Stephen made Ashley laugh; they clicked immediately. Though the first interaction that made Ashley laugh wasn't intentional, it's become memorable. Stephen was messaging Ashley, and one of the first things he said was a typo. He tried fixing the typo, just for another typo to occur. Starting to panic, he would then plead, "I swear I'm cool!" Since this made Ashley laugh, she figured he was worth getting to know better. There's been no regrets. {The First Date} The first date was the next day, on Saturday, which also happened to be the day before Ashley flew back to Virginia. Since the date was a spur of the moment, both of them were scrambling to get ready and make the date worth while. They agreed to meet at Thanksgiving Point, where Ashley was attending a family get together. The two finally met face to face and the date started with dinner at Mo'Bettahs. Stephen was especially the most nervous between the two but both would warm up to each other very quickly, finding a lot of things they had in common. Plans to go laser tagging were canceled since Ashley was wearing sandals, so they agreed to go to the race tracks in Salt Lake City. The two had a fun night together, talking , laughing, and enjoying the races. Their date ended with Ice Cream at Leatherby's before Stephen took Ashley back where she was staying to say good night.

{The Day of the Proposal} Stephen wasn't entirely sure when he wanted to propose to Ashley, but he knew he wanted to do it where he met her for the first time, at Thanksgiving Point. He consulted with his family as well as hers, trying to figure out how to make it special. He finally decided he would ask her on a weekend, a few days before Christmas. Had already had the ring before she flew to Utah, which Ashley's mother accompanied him to help him select it. About a week after she flew in Utah, Ashley began to wonder if Stephen was going to propose and began to consider that maybe he would not. Stephen however planned to get a majority of both families together to bear witness him asking her for his hand in marriage. After visiting with Ashley's mother for dinner, both Stephen and Ashley began to make their way back home but on the way, he made the suggestion they go to Thanksgiving Point to take a picture in remembrance of their first date. They arrived, and both families were in hiding. Stephen and Ashley took a couple pictures, then Stephen asked his brother to come over to take a picture of the two of them. Ashley was caught off guard, surprised to meet his brother there and as she was distracted by the sudden surprise, Stephen got on his knee and asked her if she would marry him. Ashley was speechless, smiling and laughing all at once, especially when both families began to emerge from their hiding spots. Ashley said yes and then they shared their first kiss as an engaged couple.