In December of 2018, Tanner was in Oxford, MS for the holidays. While swiping through Hinge, he landed on the profile of a cute, bespectacled young woman whose first listed interest was Lord of the Rings. Need I say more? He spent the next few days thinking of the best way to reach out that would guarantee a response, and sent the message. Meanwhile in Atlanta, Lila volunteered to help in the preschool class at her church the Sunday before Christmas Eve. Four hours with dozens of toddlers was sufficient cultivation time for a violent illness to take hold. As Christmas day approached, Lila felt more and more poorly, but she was surprised by a message on Hinge from a handsome, well-traveled visual effects artist. After swapping a few messages and noting a litany of shared interests, they agreed to touch base after the holiday. On Boxing Day, Lila received a text from Tanner. Apparently, during a fever-pitch, Lila confidently gave Tanner her cell number. She has no memory of this. Tanner would be out of town until after the new year and Lila was still quite ill, so they decided to keep in touch, but set a date for a week out on January 5th at 8:00 (the time is important). Lila is passionately, nay obsessively punctual. So the next part of the story defies not only logic and reason, but the very fabric of her nature. Noting her propensity to go to bed early, Lila asked if they could meet at 7:00 instead. Immediately after Tanner agreed, Lila apparently forgot the time change. At 6:35, Lila’s roommate, Gabbi, arrived home, asked her why she hadn’t left yet, and a scramble began. Tanner arrived at the pub at 6:45 and secured a booth. At ten til 7, Lila texted that she was on the way. He decided to wait, proving his patience and long-suffering from the very first date. He’s glad he did. After 5 hours of conversation across a myriad of topics, they said goodnight. Only 15 minutes later, Tanner texted and within an hour they had made plans to see each other again.

On the Art of Blanket Forts Over the course of our relationship our mutual love for Tolkien has only grown. It was obvious to me, Tanner (hi), that it was something I could draw on to pop the big question. I had plans to go somewhere beautiful and ask, but that option ceased to exist after the world went into quarantine, so it was time to improvise a bit. I spent the first few months of 2020 writing a story set in a Tolkien-esque universe about two characters that represented the two of us. I found an awesome leather-bound journal with worn pages and wrote the story inside, along with a map of the world of our story. I found a ring that was as unique as Lila, and almost as beautiful. All that was left was to put in the work and find the right way to ask. No one knew when I was going to pop the question. I didn’t even know for sure until about 3pm on the day. My plan was to trick her into building a blanket fort in the living room “to play a board game” which went off without a hitch. After we played the game I asked if she wanted to read in the fort. She said yes, but she also told me to go to the other end of the couch so she could be more comfortable. I told her to just wait there so I could grab what I wanted to read. I came back with the proposal book in hand and the second I sat down next to her with it she knew what was going on. She read the book aloud (unclear how much I had written, there was a bathroom break requested before the good part) and turned the book over to me when we hit the right page. I proposed, she said yes, tears were shed, and everything had gone according to plan. It wasn’t the proposal I had envisioned at the beginning of the year, but getting engaged in a blanket fort is about as on-brand for us as it gets.