Cody and I met the day after Freshman move-in when I got locked out of my dorm room. Cody's room was the only one with the door open. It was diagonal to mine across the hall, so, I knocked, went in, and asked for help. We went down to the reception desk, borrowed a key to unlock the door, and he waited in my room for me to return the key. Moral of the story: never trust a roommate! The same evening, we went to the late night "Target" event and ended up hanging out. We watched movies the rest of the weekend. On August 26, 2019 Cody and I started dating.

On our first date, Lauren and I went ice skating. Let's say that neither one of us have any expertise on ice! I think we spent more time sitting on the ice than we did gracefully circumventing the arena. When we tossed in the towel and got tired of falling, we decided to spend the rest of the evening relaxing and watching a movie.

For my first birthday spent with Cody, we went out to dinner; now a tradition. Cody surprised me with a birthday cake - my absolute favorite a Chocolate, Carmel, and Pecan Turtle cake. For Cody's birthday, we went fishing on Wrightsville Beach, I took him out to dinner, and made him his favorite cake, an Orange Supreme cake.

Cody spent a fair amount of time trying to plan the proposal but it ended up happening a few days earlier than expected. First, Cody asked Lauren if he could use the Canon camera in the morning for a photoshoot at his buddy's farm. Early in the afternoon, on August 26, 2023, Cody traversed the city of Wilmington to give the camera to Lauren's friend Abby; Abby was the photographer for the big event. Cody and Lauren went to Genki Sushi for dinner and since the evening was so lovely and Cody had ulterior motives, they took a stroll on the boardwalk. Lauren was faced toward the water until she heard the clicking of the camera; "Abby, what are you doing here?" she asked. At that point, the deer in the headlights went off, and Cody proposed. Lauren said' "Yes".