Jacob and Zoe met while both going to school in Crandall, Texas. They were students there since elementary school, but didn't become friends until they both joined band their freshman year of high school. Through high school, Jacob and Zoe were in a core group of friends including Rhonda Locke, Hunter Dillon, Chris Donawho, and Dakota Jones, who are all now in the wedding party. After they graduated in 2013, Jacob attended school at Texas A&M University and Zoe began school at Texas A&M University - Commerce. Despite the distance, Jacob and Zoe remained friends and became even closer over the years they were at college. Zoe graduated in December 2016 and moved home to Dallas and Jacob moved back home as well, to begin an internship at SMU. Being the only two of the group back home from college, their relationship grew every day. In June, Zoe began working at the company where Jacob was employed. At the end of that month, they started dating. Eight years after they met, they cannot wait to continue their lives together.

Leading up to our 3 month anniversary, Jacob told me he was going to plan a surprise date. This is what he had done for our previous anniversaries so no big deal, right? Well, it gets to the week of and I happen to go back to Commerce for a sorority event. On the way there with my friend Rachael, and at dinner to my friend Konner, I said "I have this really weird feeling that Jacob is going to propose this weekend, but I know he isn't". I could not shake that feeling all week leading up to Saturday. He picked me up for lunch and surprised me with brunch at my favorite place in Bishop Arts District. After brunch we started driving back towards my house. We then pulled into the Arboretum. I was so excited because I had been asking to go for awhile, and we never take pictures together, so this was perfect place to go. As soon as we got out of the car I started to get that feeling again, like he might propose while we are here. We got in and started walking around and were just following the paths, when we came to a fork in the pathway. To our right was the reflecting pools and sculpture garden looking out on White Rock Lake. There is a big arch in the garden and Jacob said we should go take a picture under that. I agreed and we started to walk over there but as we got closer I asked, "You want the arch to be in the picture right? So why would we stand under it?". He just ignored me and pulled me under the arch. We were standing there and I was ready for him to take out his phone when he smiled and said "We're not taking a picture". I was so confused, and in the same moment he started to get down on one knee. My first response was "No way!" because I was so shocked, and then as soon as he asked "Will you marry me?', I of course, said yes.

I knew the day I started dating Zoe that I was going to marry her. I began saving for a ring very shortly after we started dating. That was easy, the hard part was keeping quiet about it for the three weeks I held on to it. Before the big day I mentioned to Zoe that our anniversary was coming up and that I wanted to take her out on a nice surprise date. This wasn’t the first time I had done this, so she wasn’t too suspicious. On October 7th I picked Zoe up from her house and took her to one of her favorite restaurants in the Bishop Arts District. She was super excited and somehow didn’t notice me constantly checking my pocket to make sure the ring was still there. After we finished eating, we headed to the Arboretum. We talked about going there for a while so she was happy I was finally taking her. By this point I was starting to get nervous. We arrived about 30 minutes before I told the photographer we would be there, but luckily she was already in position so I didn’t have to drag Zoe all around trying to kill time. When we came up to the arch and reflecting pond where I was going to propose, I told Zoe that I wanted to take a picture under the arch with her. I walked toward the spot and she stopped me and started saying that if we wanted to have the arch in the picture we would have to stand beside it instead of under it. I was too nervous to argue with her so I pulled her under the arch with me and said “we’re not taking a picture.” She gave me a confused look and then I told her I loved her, got down on one knee, pulled out the ring, and asked if she would marry me. As I was doing this she yelled “No! No way!” in disbelief. It was super cute but also there was a group of people watching this all take place and all they saw was Zoe yell “no” when I asked her to marry me and then stand there in silence for a moment so that probably didn’t look great to them. After she regained her composure she yelled “YES!” and I put the ring on her finger and kissed her.