The story of Leah and Alex begins with a college service fraternity. Leah and I were pledging at the beginning of sophomore year, and part of that process was getting to know the other pledges. Enter Alex. This clown, y’all. He certainly put forth a strong impression. He was funny, but Leah was not interested. Weekly Sunday night pledge meetings and service events continued, alongside Alex’s failed attempts at winning Leah over. He really liked her. He had even told me so; how funny he thought she was and how badly he wanted to take her on a date but how she had always avoided it. It wasn't until one evening when we were leaving a meeting. I was heading back to our apartment and Leah was going to the library with some of the other pledges to study. Later that night, I received a text about how Alex was growing on her. I guess he had finally earned that date he wanted! I won't take credit for putting in a good word after what he had told me, so we will just assume it was his humor alone that closed the deal. Following that moment, the whole world exploded. They truly were one of the same person. Two peas in a kooky pod. I could make this a much longer story with the countless memories I have of them involving friends, family, and a wild blue-nosed pitbull, but I’ll leave this short. As their roommate for over two years, and best friend for much longer, I can attest that the chemistry of Leah and Alex still holds true as it did almost eight years ago. This will conclude my abridged story of Leah and Alex for now-- see you on November 7th!

In May 2018, Leah graduated from Meredith College and to celebrate, Alex and Leah planned an adventure out west (much to the avail of Leah's mother who was less than thrilled she would be sleeping in a campervan out in the wilderness and partaking in treacherous hikes BUT they survived and Collette only got a few more gray hairs). First stop, after gambling in the Las Vegas casinos, was the Grand Canyon. Alex was originally going to propose at sunset when they first arrived, however, he mistakenly tried to RUSH Leah to the site and as you can imagine this did not go over well (because guess what, those rocks weren't going anywhere so please don't rush me...I mean Leah). Anyways, now it was time for plan B. Alex told Leah he wanted to see the sun rise over the Grand Canyon so they got up early the next morning and picked the perfect spot to watch (at Grand View Lookout Point). Alex set up the GoPro to "take pictures" of them while the sun was rising but this was all a ruse so he could capture the proposal on video (please see Leah's facebook for aforementioned video). He plopped down on one knee, Leah gasped, there was a big rock involved, a few tears, lots of smiles, and the rest is history. To this day, Alex still insists Leah must have known the proposal was coming (I mean let's be honest, this guy can't keep a surprise to save his life) but nonetheless, it was in fact, the biggest surprise of her life.