We owe our friend Elise big time, because she talked me into giving the Bumble dating app a try which is how I found Preston! Although I was a little hesitant to reach out to anyone I had matched with, all it took in the end was a single message: "Hi, go Frogs! :)" In the following days, we took the conversation well beyond talk of our college experiences as TCU Horned Frogs with a game of random questions. Because Bumble only displays first names, it wasn't until Preston friended me on social media that I discovered his last name was coincidentally also Taylor. I couldn't stop laughing and knew I had to meet him in person. For our first date, Preston took me to dinner at Gemma in Dallas, then to the Enchant Christmas Light Maze at Globe Life Park. It was the perfect date in every way! We went ice skating, danced to live music, ran through the forest of Christmas lights giggling like COMPLETE idiots, and found all of Santa's missing reindeer (yes, including Cupid!).

Despite our concerns about coronavirus, when Texas and California started opening back up in May we decided not to cancel our long-overdue trip to visit my family in California for the summer. I knew Preston had been waiting to ask my parents for their blessing in person, but he had also decided to continue working from "home" most days during our trip so I doubted he would also try to squeeze in a proposal. Preston is a really bad liar though, and toward the end of the trip when I asked him to take a 3-day weekend, instead of saying he couldn't, he confessed he was already planning to but that he would be "busy." I backed off, SURE that meant he was planning to propose that Friday. It turned out he was picking up his family from the airport so they could be there for the proposal the following day, but I didn't know this, so when nothing happened I was pretty upset! I was going to spend the next day with my dad and siblings for an early Father's Day celebration, and Preston agreed to go out to dinner with us. When he showed up and suggested we all go watch the sunset at the beach before dinner, I didn't think much of it since sunset walks had become a normal routine during the trip. As we walked to Salt Creek Beach though, my family hung back and Preston suggested we take a picture off the path by the lifeguard tower. I knew IT WAS HAPPENING NOW from the tone in his voice, then the sight of a blanket decorated with candles and flowers. Of course I said "YES!" and as he got out the ring, I realized his family was there with us too which was the absolute cherry on top. Although he had his work cut out for him, Preston pulled off the perfect surprise with help from both our families!

We are so excited to celebrate with our friends and families in Horseshoe Bay! "But, wait, isn't that hours away from Dallas where you both live?" For those of you asking, yes, you're right. To us though, this place was the obvious choice for our wedding. Lake LBJ feels more like home to us than anywhere else in Texas. Since we first started dating, we've spent as many weekends as we possibly could at the Taylor family lake house. Although Preston's family lives in the San Antonio area, many of their family holidays and other celebrations have been spent at the lake. Their lake house is the central point where family members from Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Waco can meet for a relaxing weekend spent catching up and having fun. For me, although I left California years ago to go to school at TCU, the lake house delivers that magical "by-the-water" feeling I thought I would never find in Texas. Last Easter, when we went to Mass at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church for the first time, we looked around this beautiful church in our favorite place then looked at each other and agreed if we got married, this would be the place.