Gabriel and I met the summer of 2009. I was a freshman going into high school and decided to join the marching band. You know what that means.. You guessed it, BAND CAMP! As exciting as a summer-lovin' romance would have been, Gabriel and I didn't start dating until after marching band season was over on November 27th. He says he'll never forget the day I showed up to practice when he instantly knew he wanted to make me his girlfriend. We spent a lot of our time together at school, band practices and importantly church. Even though I came from a religious background, I didn't really begin my relationship with God until he introduced me to his church. Over the next four years, we witnessed each other grow closer to God and each other. Like most relationships, we had our ups and downs but never stopped loving each other despite our differences. I thank God every day for blessing me with his life. We always knew in our hearts that building our life together was part of God's plan and something we both wanted.

Our family, friends and I planned a surprise birthday party for Gabriel on May 19th, 2018. Since his birthday is May 27th and landed on Memorial Day weekend, we figure it would be best to throw this surprise early. We planned for about 2 months in advance, all to find out he was secretly planning the whole thing. Messages were exchanged between our group of friends discussing a checklist of what to bring, what to wear and how we would have a barbecue ready for him at Matheson Hammock Park beach. I told him I would be taking him to dinner but the restaurant was a surprise and that he had to be blind folded the entire time! It was a rainy day but everyone insisted we were still on board with the plans. As soon as we arrived, the rain stopped and we walked over to the beach hand in hand where everyone would be waiting. One of our favorite artists has always been John Legend so when I heard, "I know Better" begin to play as we walked along the shore, I instantly knew this was no surprise for him but for me. Tied to the palm trees you could read on several wooden signs the phrases, "Do you remember?" "No matter what" "My beautiful Spanish flower" and the final read "Will you marry me?". I could not hold my tears back as Gabriel got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. He turned what was supposed to be a surprise for him into on of the best days of my life. We can't wait to begin to spend the rest of our lives together and share our journey with you!