We actually attended Kirby middle school together & didn’t know until we started dating later on down the line. Years later we officially saw each other at our church (Circle of Light) back in the summer of 2012 when he joined and was formally introduced through his best friend who just so happened to be my cousin. Because he and my cousin were friends we would occasionally see each other at different outings but just passed flirtatious looks at each other. I could tell Chris saw something he liked and I had to admit he was kinda fine! A few months later, on the night of my cousin’s wedding Chris decided to ask if he could take me on a date and get to know me better. I played him off for a little while but he was very persistent. From that first date we became inseparable!

We’d been in a long distance relationship since January of 2015 when Chris joined the Army & had been talking about getting married for quite some time. We planned for me to fly up to New York, where he was stationed, in October of 2017 to get married - just me & him. But I knew deep down that what I really wanted was my big dream wedding with all of our family and friends there. On September 16, 2017 I received a life changing call that I would have never imagined I’d be receiving. Chris had been rushed to the hospital. I jumped on the next flight to be with him. He stayed in a coma for over a month BUT GOD!!!! God allowed him to wake up and make a full recovery. On November 2, 2017 we arrived back home to STL. On News Year Eve Chris planned for us to attend the Mike Epps and Katt Williams comedy show at the Chaifetz. During intermission we decided to go out to take a picture by the event photographer. As we were waiting for our turn in line I told him I was going to run to the bathroom to look in the mirror real quick. I came back and it was our turn to take our picture. As we walked up the photographer asked if we were ready before capturing our pic. Chris turned to me and asked, “How long do you want to do this?” I looked at him confused and asked what he was talking about. He then replied, “Because I wanna do this forever!” and dropped to one knee and pulled the ring out of his pocket. I stood there in total shock. He asked, “Will you marry me?” People that were in the hallway started clapping and surrounding us and I was still standing there in disbelief. I couldn’t believe he had planned this. After I finally snapped out of it I screamed, “OF COURSE!” We were both so happy and on cloud nine that we didn’t even finish watching the show lol. We left soon after and went to celebrate with our family.