Emma moved into her dorm at the University of Kentucky on August 17th, 2016, helping all the swimmers move in were the other upperclassman swimmers including Josh. Josh and Emma had become fast friends and automatically "clicked". Their passion for swimming and Jesus is what sparked and continued their friendship over the years. When Josh graduated college in Dec 2019, they soon realized their relationship was much stronger than a friendship.

On a stormy Saturday morning, Josh and Emma started out the day at one of their favorite coffee shops, Red Bicycle. Josh told Emma that they were going on their second out of six "surprise dates" he had planned. This is what he had told her in order to "throw her off"- smart man! The date started with an overdue museum tour that the couple had discussed taking for months prior. They arrived at the Tennessee State History Museum around 4:00pm and the museum closed at 5pm. - Emma turned to Josh and told him that was not nearly enough time to get through the museum! (Josh, however, thought an hour, with the ring burning a hole through his pocket, was too much time!). When the museum closed, they had walked out of the side to the Bicentennial Mall Lawn and the sun had finally broken out. In the park there is a stone paved circular courtyard surrounded by tall thin bell towers. As they were walking out, the bells started chiming, giving a fairy-tale-like atmosphere. As they stopped in the center of the courtyard, he handed her a note and asked her to read it. He stood behind her, took out the ring from his pocket, got down on one knee and asked: 'will you marry me?". She said "YES!!" (Or she is pretty sure she did, she says that she kind of blacked out and doesn't remember lol). After that they went to a beautiful restaurant called 'Bourbon Steak' to celebrate and enjoy the evening. Much to Emma's surprise, Josh had an Engagement Party set up at her home with some of their friends waiting to join them in celebration. When they got to her home at the end of the night, she was so surprised, and he was relieved that the secret keeping was finally over. Mission accomplished. A message from the couple: We are so thankful and blessed with the best friends and family that have impacted and encouraged us along the way. We cannot wait to continue on this next step of our journey of life and would love to have you alongside of us celebrating on our big day!