Austin and I actually met many many moons ago at Texas Tech University. We hung around the same group of friends when he started attending Tech. However, with our at-the-time-ginormous age gap of 2 years, I didn't really ever give Austin the time of day (aside from as a friend, of course). Although I did know he was a pretty cool kid. I still remember riding to Jimmy John's in his Jeep at the time and going solely for a loaf of the oh-so-delicious Jimmy John's bread before going back to his place to watch "Reign of Fire" while all our other friends were stuck at work. We also bonded because of his adorable lab, Zoe. Who I taught to "hug", a trick Austin was none too fond of. (Clearly he's since forgiven me). He even let me borrow Zoe for a sleepover one night after watching "The Shining" when both my roommates were out of town! Again-all signs of a pretty cool kid. Little did I know where this would lead! Flash forward about 6 years later, Austin and I had both remained close to none other than Mr. Andrew "Amo" Moline, who happens to be the best man in our wedding! I had moved back to Houston but would frequently come up to Dallas to visit a few friends from school. And Amo was always one of them. He and Austin had become roommates so, by default, Austin was always around when I would come visit. We actually started becoming good friends but we never realized we had started to have feelings for each other until one very fateful trip to Colorado! However, it still took me a while to convince him of how awesome I am as, even after that trip, it took 8 months for him to finally come to his senses! And now here we are!

I had gone to Cape Cod to spend a week with my family. Austin claimed he wouldn't be able to come this particular summer since he'd just started a new job and had a lot on his plate. While I was bummed, I understood. A few days after arriving, I was sent the most gorgeous bouquet of flowers! I did think it was suspicious but, after a few days of nothing else, I took it as just a super thoughtful gesture. Flash forward to a week after I had been at the Cape. My mom, gramma & I were getting our nails done. We had never done this before at the Cape but my mom had mentioned weeks before that my gramma mentioned that she'd like to go with us while we were there so I thought nothing of it. (Very sneaky mom!). When we finished, my mom decided to dilly-dally around town when all I wanted to do was get home. I kept pressing her to leave & finally I convinced her! When we got back to the house, my papa wanted to do his evening walk. He had asked me the first day I got there if I would walk with him every day at 5pm. Again, I thought nothing of it. My mom said she would go with us. I was all set to go when both my mom & papa decided they needed to "suddenly" use the restroom. I started thinking "something is very strange here" but decided not to mention it to anyone. Finally, we walk! My papa decided that night he wanted to go a different way, down to the boat dock where they used to moor their boat. As we're walking down the gravel path, all these random red "leaves" start appearing. I look up in the treeline & there are absolutely zero red leaves. As we get closer to the dock, the "leaves" became denser & I realized they're rose petals! As we round the corner, Austin comes down a path out of the woods with a single rose & a red box and gets down on one knee! And I said yes! After that, we alerted everyone we knew & had a champagne toast with my parents & grandparents before going to the most delicious post-engagement dinner! It was definitely a night to remember!