We met while we were both attending Local Church in St. Petersburg, Fl. Shayna was a part of the greeting team and made it a point every Sunday to introduce herself to someone that she had not met before. You all know her, she never meets a stranger. So on this particular Sunday Kelsey was sitting in her row. After service Shayna walked up to Kelsey and introduced herself only to have Kelsey awkwardly mumble his name and walk away. Shayna assumed that Kelsey did not want to speak with her and left it at that. Fast forward to the next few Sundays and Kelsey would always greet Shayna at church and ask how her week went. This went on for awhile, until one Sunday in June when Shayna shared her "Local Story" on singleness. Apparently that was Kelsey's greenlight to finally make a move to reach out to Shayna outside of church. (Apparently Kelsey had been trying to figure out Shayna's last name for months so he could find her on social media and this provided him with what he needed). Kelsey messaged Shayna via Facebook wishing her a Happy July 4th. (Yep, Kelsey slide in the DMs). Shayna responded and Kelsey offered his number stating he would love to hang out sometime. They chatted on the phone and Kelsey invited Shayna to a 4th of July cookout that was happening at his place. Shayna agreed to show up, intending to unload all the leftovers from her 4th of July cookout the day before. Her intentions were only to drop off the food and stay 30 minutes but little did she know she would end up hanging out for 2 hours talking and laughing with Kelsey. After the 4th of July cookout, Kelsey and Shayna met up for tacos before she left for a week long work trip in Arizona. They talked on the phone everyday about faith, life, and their interests. After a couple of weeks of non stop texting, phone calls and hang outs, Kelsey finally asked Shayna if she would consider dating him. In true Shayna fashion, she told him she would like to pray on it, but was open to continuing to learn more about each other in the meantime. Eventually Shayna realized the ease that came with spending time with Kelsey and shared that she felt peace about moving forward and dating him....and you all know where the story goes from there!

Kelsey wanted to do something unexpected, something that would surprise Shayna and catch her off guard.. so he decided he would do something cliché. Something so ridiculous that our very clever Shayna wouldn't figure out. Kelsey decided he would fly a banner in the sky, from a boat with the words "Shayna, Will You Marry Me!". Although everything went off without a hitch, Shayna did not make surprising her easy. Let's go back to the start. Kelsey needed to get Shayna to the beach, so he said told her he wanted to have a beach day and invite a couple friends. Kelsey was hoping that by inviting friends, someone could get a few pictures. Well, in true Shayna fashion, she sent an evite to over 50 people and made it an event!!! The kicker..she had the event starting at 2 instead of 1pm as Kelsey had requested! This was a problem, 2pm was the time Kelsey had arranged the banner to go up! Kelsey was in distress, wondering how he was gonna make this proposal happen. Thankfully he was able to convince Shayna to go to the beach straight from church, but he still needed to get her to the beach by 1 to get set up. Kelsey was in the clear, or so he thought. Things kept popping up along the way such as, "We can stop at walmart for a wagon after church, instead of stopping on the way", or "Why do you want to be there at 1? Beach day is an on time thing?" Or Kelsey's favorite, as they were seated at the beach and Shayna looked at him and said," You don't have to help people carry their stuff, but I'm going to." Thankfully Kelsey had reinforcements, a couple of friends who helped wrangle Shayna in and her surprise was off the charts. It was complete with the explicit language Kelsey had hoped for and paired with the violent throwing of a Yeti cup that would end with a hug in the sand and a Yes (more or less).