On a Fall college football afternoon in Austin, Texas in 2017, I met the love of my life, Maggie (soon to be Bowers) Rowley. I was out with some buddies on West 6th street waiting for an afternoon LSU kick-off. The sun was shining, the beers were cold, and the Tigers were still undefeated, all the makings of a good Saturday. I was grabbing a round at the bar when I spotted this beautiful, energetic blonde with an Irish sunburn that would make a grown man wince. If the bartender was serving Aloe, I would have ordered her a double. Thirty minutes-or-so goes by when a buddy from work showed up and said he wanted to introduce me to a friend of his from home (shout out to Troy and Paige). Over comes Maggie, with her Midwestern accent and fresh sunburn from Lake Austin that morning. My life changed forever. Yes, we met at a bar, sorry Mom! We spent the next 8 hours laughing, drinking, and asking each other to say words in our respective accents (Midwestern vs. Louisianian). I knew I was in trouble when I had hardly noticed that LSU lost. Before we parted ways that night, I managed to get her number. And, being the classy, collected individual that I am, I waited an entire 12 hours to ask her out. Little did I know, she would make me ask two more times before finally agreeing to grab a drink with me. Roosevelt Room in downtown Austin, followed by a UT football game the next day. Four years, one dog, and countless fajitas later, I can't wait to call her my wife.

Prior to joining my family for Thanksgiving (2020) in Georgia, Nick and I took a pre-holiday road trip to Asheville, NC. While we were there, we scheduled a tour at the Biltmore Estate. In typical Nick fashion, calm and collected as could be, he toured the 250 room estate with me where he patiently let me check out every square inch of the place. After wrapping up the tour, Nick suggested we check out the Biltmore’s back lawn. I figured that was the least I could do after dragging him around for two hours as I checked out at every little thing in the mansion. Unbeknownst to me, he did this all while having a beautiful engagement ring burning a hole in his jacket pocket. We walked to the back lawn of the Estate where Nick changed my life forever. He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! What felt like a very natural series of events was what I learned to actually be a production of well-thought-out plans by Nick. We spent the next 2 days celebrating by making our way thru every brewery in Asheville and showing off my new bling! I couldn’t wait to get back to Milton to share my excitement with my family. Upon returning, I learned a couple of things. 1) According to Nick, the proposal itself apparently wasn’t enough of a surprise and 2) Nick and I were not the only two people excited about the engagement. We pulled up to my parent's house to find BOTH our families on the front porch cheering for us, a balloon arch in full force and “going to the chapel and we're gonna get married” playing loud for the whole neighborhood to hear. I was elated to see that Nick’s family had traveled in from New Orleans and Houston to also be part of the celebration. It was certainly the cherry on top of the best surprise ever. It goes without saying that Nick made it incredibly easy for me to have lots to be thankful for that year!