We met in high school while we were both in marching band. I played the clarinet and Kyle played the tenor saxophone. My senior year and Kyle's junior year, I decided to march with the bass clarinet, which placed me near the tenor saxophones for marching because of our similar sounds. There is not a whole lot more to say here, because the rest is really history. We spent a lot of time together and discovered that we got along really well, which turned into us dating. Dating went well enough that when I went off to college, we decided to do the long distance thing until Kyle followed me after he graduated. We eventually moved in together and then moved states together, deciding somewhere along the way that marriage was in our future. We have never been in a rush to tie the knot, but now that it is officially on the docket, I have to say, I'm pretty excited.

We took a trip to New Zealand, lightly disguised as a graduation gift from Kyle's parents. We decided to do a bit of a road trip, since there are lots of things to see in New Zealand, but the most important is the filming location of Hobbington from Lord of the Rings. We took a tour of the cute little hobbit town, packed with other tourists and were starting to burn from the island sun. I was taking lots of pictures of each little hobbit hole and the adorable over-grown gardens until we came up on "the" picture spot. This hobbit hole had the door slightly open, so it was a common spot for everyone to line up and have the tour guide take couple or group pictures for everyone. It was here that Kyle handed over his phone, put down his backpack and took off the sunglasses, nervously rubbing his palms on his shorts. We walked up to the door, me getting in position for a quick picture and then pretending surprise when he put his hands on my shoulders for a completing endearing speech on how much he loved me. He then got down on one knee and pulled out the little ring box, and despite me completing expecting this, I couldn't help but tear up. I said "of course" while the tourists behind us clapped and we got our snap shot in front of the door. We then proceeded to the Green Dragon Inn to celebrate and in fact took the rest of the whole trip to celebrate. Now, whenever we watch our favorite series, The Lord of the Rings, we get to see the place where it all went down and pretend that we are actually part of the movie.