We're getting married!

We met in college and at first, we were just friends. In fact, Ryan even told me that he liked me (pretty bold right?) but unfortunately, I did not feel the same. Until one day, I thought ‘well maybe….?’ I then decided to test the waters. Ryan and I spent more and more time together. Then came the Halloween date function between my sorority and his fraternity where we went through haunted houses together (yeah, I was terrified). It was that night, holding Ryan’s hand through the haunted houses screaming & scared that I decided that I really liked this dude. Chatting over ice cream in Ryan’s truck on November 2nd, 2019, I decided to take the leap and tell Ryan I liked him – hoping he still liked me back…. Lucky for me, he did and 1 month later on December 2nd, Ryan asked me out. Through ups and downs, we’ve always stayed close to each other. Always promising each other a ‘long abundant goober life’ together.

Ryan covered up the dinner plans as his ‘birthday’ dinner, but I had a feeling something was up. We went to Mezza Luna and enjoyed some yummy Italian. The waiter was taking a little too long to bring us our check and Ryan was getting antsy that the sun would set before we got to the proposal setup. Luckily, I had already asked if we could take a walk on the beach after dinner and everything was falling into place. After a quick stop at the car (making Ryan even antsier about getting there) we headed toward the beach. Ryan was moving us along (more like racing) to get to our spot in time. All of a sudden red rose petals were sprinkled across the beach and we reached a beautiful red rose circle with a table with candles and a dinner setup. But we kept walking….yep, you read that right, we walked right through someone else’s proposal setup. I had a feeling it wasn’t for me because that’s not my style. Finally, we come upon a blanket set up with pillows, flowers, and a sign that says ‘Mr & Mrs Garner est 2022’ and I thought ‘ah yes much more me.’ I was already crying at this point and Ryan took my hands and we just stared into each other's eyes. Ryan definitely had a speech prepared, but in the moment he said “I can’t even remember what I was going to say, so I’m just gonna do it.” Ryan dropped to one knee and asked me to marry him. I excitedly said yes and stood in disbelief for a second (also staring at the ring because WOW!!) We kissed and hugged and that’s when I noticed Abbey, our photographer, and Alyssa, Kendall, Camille, and Taylor all around the beach! My besties had successfully helped Ryan pull off this proposal. Abbey took some more photos and I grabbed the champagne, which unbeknownst to me was for drinking and not spraying, but I was too excited and shook that champagne to celebrate! We left the beach and headed to Ryan’s house for an engagement party with friends and family.