In 2017, Hailey and Ryan would casually meet through mutual friends at a graduation party. He must have made a huge impression, because Hailey forgot he was there. Over the next couple of years, Ryan would playfully make fun of Hailey's snapchat stories back and forth. Before they knew it, they were truly the best of friends, talking from the time they woke up until they went to bed most days. However, both SWORE they would NEVER date each other. From 2017-2020, Ryan and Hailey would give each other relationship advice about other people they were dating and Hailey would write in her journal, "If only I could find a guy who gets me like Ryan does...". In the year 2020, the world turned upside down, as well as Hailey and Ryan's relationship finally. Having both recently broken up with someone and a pandemic breaking out with nowhere else to go, Ryan asked Hailey to hang out. She firmly said, "No." Deep down, Hailey knew if they started hanging out they would never stop and it would be too hard to be "that" close to each other. One historic night a couple of attempts later, Hailey caved and Ryan came over to her apartment where she cooked him dinner (Bruschetta chicken- which Ryan ate the entirety of before telling her later he hated tomatoes). This was April of 2020, and as Hailey predicted, they never stopped hanging out. Dating each other was easy, as they were already best friends. The pandemic provided a perfect little bubble to only get to know each other day in and day out, enjoying the little things, like togo El Tiempo margaritas, walking Elle, and survival shows. Little did they know, Ryan would soon get offered a contract with his job in Europe building data centers- an opportunity neither of them would allow him to pass up. So, on November 16, 2020, Hailey drove to Dallas to meet Ryan's parents for the first time while dropping him off at the airport with his luggage and dog, hoping and praying for the best. They like to joke they didn't even know if they intended on staying together- Hailey was starting her Grad School journey to become a principal and Ryan was 7 time zones away. God had other plans. After not being able to see each other due to the lockdown in Europe for 10 months, Ryan and Hailey finally began "their" portion of Ryan's European living together- traveling to countries such as Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Croatia, Greece, Portugal, and Spain. While dating long distance was not ideal, having dates on other continents was. Fast forward to December of 2022, somehow, they woke up that Christmas realizing they had actually made it.. and now their life could settle and begin in Houston (in a one bedroom apartment with 3 dogs). Ryan and Hailey purchased their first home in February, 2023 and have since enjoyed every small thing they missed out on for two years while Ryan was in Europe. It wasn't easy, but they always knew they'd make it to this day.

Written from Hailey's perspective: Ryan proposed a trip in the summer: a weekend in Jackson Hole, Wyoming with some work friends. Neither of us had ever been there and we loved the group going. However, we had just booked a week long trip to Barcelona set for two weeks after that. Knowing that I am a teacher and PTO is hard to take, I initially resisted the trip with every excuse in the book. Finally, Ryan looked at me with so much seriousness on his face and said the trip meant a lot to him and we WERE going no matter what. I hesitated, but I took off a Thursday and Friday from school to make this trip happen. Friday, September 29, 2023 started with an intense 7 hour hike to Delta Lake. When we got back to the house, where we were staying with 7 other people, we played beer darts & hung out outside with the Tetons in the background. I knew we had dinner reservations, which wasn’t odd because we were the only people on this trip who had never been to Jackson Hole so we had kinda been doing our own thing all weekend off and on. I needed to get ready for dinner from our hike and said to the girls there I wasn’t going to wash my hair because I just had the night before (IYKYK girls). The group convinced me that was gross (sneaky!) lol, so I went to shower. Little did I know, during my quick shower, Ryan was steaming this perfect white dress he had picked out & bought for me to wear, along with a pair of white heels. He hid all of this in the car, along with the ring. I got dressed as normal in the white turtleneck and brown pants I had picked out and we headed out. On the way to dinner, Ryan suggested we stop at a popular moose lookout point since we hadn’t seen one yet. We got out of the car to probably 50 people with cameras looking at a herd of moose. Our photographer later told us she had NEVER seen this many people at this spot. But behind the scenes, her and Ryan had a plan to take me off to the left of the lookout point. As soon as we stepped over, Ryan dropped to one knee and said, “You’re my best friend and I don’t ever want to live a day without you”. Short and sweet, which was perfect because I was freaking out lol. Then, Ryan pointed to a beautiful girl who had been photographing the entire thing (lost in the crowd, to me). He then told me about the white dress & heels hiding in the car and said I could change before our second location for the photo shoot that would ensue. After I changed in the car, we took the white dress photos & headed downtown to the famous Cowboy Bar. He thought of literally every detail, including interviewing 6 photographers to find the perfect one. I never worried one bit he wouldn’t make this the best day of my life. 🤍