We’re getting married!

We met in January of 2022 in a place neither of us expected to find something so meaningful... a Waffle House in Columbia, Tennessee. At the time, I was remodeling a house in the Riverside neighborhood with a couple of friends, one of them being Joe Pace. We had completely gutted the place, which meant no kitchen and long, physical days of work. Our routine quickly became work all day, refuel at Waffle House for lunch, then head to train jiu jitsu at TBJJA in the evenings. Before long, we became regulars. That’s where we met Arianna, one of the servers, who quickly became our friend. It didn't take long for her to mention that she had a friend named Shalyn who also worked there. When I finally met this mysterious friend, I felt an immediate pull toward her. Suddenly the food tasted better, the lunch outings got longer, and I found every excuse possible to stick around and talk to her. We joked, talked music, and laughed a lot. She’d draw hearts on my ticket and not Joe’s, which made him less than thrilled but always made me happy. It got to the point where it was probably annoying to everyone else. One day, as we were leaving and I was able to squeeze in one more laugh with her and Joe said, “Jesus Christ, Cole, just let her have your babies already.” I slugged him in the arm since she was still within earshot but to be fair, it was probably obvious and annoying to everyone but me. One afternoon, my mom joined me at Waffle House and ended up sitting in a booth with Shalyn talking for nearly forty minutes while I just listened and looked at her. That was when I knew for sure, this wasn’t nothing. On the last day of the remodel, I planned to ask Shalyn for her Instagram, but she wasn’t working. So, naturally, I found a very good reason to drive back down to Columbia the next day and got her contact info. I messaged her not long after and invited her to a concert, only to get the classic “yeah, I’ll let you know,” since she had just come out of a relationship. A couple of months later, she posted a photo at a graffiti bridge. I asked where it was, and conveniently, she didn’t know how to explain it but offered to show me instead. We set a date for April 22, 2022. That day, we went to the bridge with our favorite third wheel, Arianna, who came along to make sure this stranger wasn’t going to throw Shalyn off the bridge. We connected immediately. After I dropped them off, Ari told Shalyn, “You’re going to marry him.” Turns out, she was right. Since then, we’ve traveled a bunch, made some amazing friends, gone to some great concerts and weddings, spent countless nights watching movies, welcomed the best pup in the world into our lives, eaten an unreasonable amount of sushi and Chinese food, and grown together in ways we never expected. The last three and a half years have been full of love, laughter, and growth, and we can’t wait for every day that comes next.

Cole and I met at the beginning of 2022. I was working at Waffle House, slinging waffles and smothered, covered hash browns when two guys walked in, Cole and his friend Joe. They introduced themselves, we had a brief conversation, he saw I had all my teeth, and I thought that would be the end of it. Suddenly, I was seeing Cole's face every single day. He told he was remodeling a house and had bribed his friends to help him, paying them only in Waffle House meals. Day after day, without fail, he was there. Each shift, I found myself smiling a little more and laughing a little harder. I would watch out the windows and wait for his Jeep to pull up. It got so bad that I would put in his order before he ever walked in. What really caught my attention was the day he left the two idiots at home and came in by himself. We talked about music, and I mentioned a duo I listen to. I watched his eyes light up as he told me he knew exactly who they were and had even seen them live. I was mesmerized because he was the first person I had met who knew them. As our conversation continued, we discovered we had both gone to the same Imagine Dragons concert with Halsey as the opener, him in California and me in Tennessee. One day he goes to leave Waffle House, reaches the door, but then turns back. He walked toward me and asked for my Instagram. We exchanged usernames, and he left with no intention of returning since his house was finished being remodeled. I was immediately intimidated looking at his instagram. This man not only flies planes, but he does flips out of them! He messaged me saying that Halsey was coming to town and asked if I would like to go with him. I brushed him off being I was freshly out of a relationship and as previously stated, intimidated. A couple of months went by, and I posted a picture of myself at a graffiti bridge. Conveniently, Cole slid into my DMs, asking where it was. Figuring this might be my only chance to see him again, I told him I couldn’t explain how to get there, but I could take him. As my confidence wore off, I thought to myself, “ I am about to go to an abandoned bridge with a guy I don’t know who is from the other side of the country.” I then asked if my friend, Ari, could join. We spray painted the bridge, he dropped us off, and my friend says “yeah, y’all are getting married.” I got defensive at first, but as time went on, I realized she was right.