Josh and I met the good, old fashioned way (a dating app). He quickly asked me out on a date for New Year’s Day, but I talked him into meeting up with me and a friend at a karaoke bar on New Year’s Eve. Josh won me over with his karaoke skills and a first kiss at midnight. We still had our New Year’s Day date, and we’ve been inseparable since! I knew Josh was “the one” when we would FaceTime while I was in Denver and he would keep talking until I fell asleep each night. I’m so excited to marry you, Josh!

Whitney and I met on tinder and were supposed to have our first date on New Year’s Day. I originally planned on not meeting New Year’s Eve since I thought watching Michigan football on our first date would not be a good first impression. However, Michigan was doing poorly and Whitney wanted me to come out. She had me come to this very sketchy bar to sing karaoke. We had a great time and had our first kiss at midnight. Even after a late night, we still had our noon lunch date just eight hours later. I was also able to win over her dog Pearl very quickly and became the tennis ball guy. What really won me over was the following week, after Whitney got back from Denver, she made us homemade pizza with my favorite toppings, including sausage, which she is not usually a fan of. We also had a scream movie marathon, even though she is not a horror fan. I love you Whitney and can’t wait for you to be my wife.

Josh initially said he wasn’t sure that he was looking for a relationship at the time, but his actions and how he treated me told an entirely different story! Josh admitted he couldn’t be casual and officially asked me to be his girlfriend on February 12, 2022 with a card that gave multiple options to respond. I checked “yes”, “of course”, and “what took you so long?”

What better way is there to start a lifetime together than a proposal complete with deceit, trickery, and blatant lies? Josh and I started talking about getting married a few months after we started dating, but neither of us wanted to rush our relationship. At some point, I was told by Josh that he would propose in “early spring”. I took this to mean April and tried to not worry about it even though I was so excited I didn’t want to wait! Josh started by asking my parents permission to propose on Christmas Eve while I was working out with my younger brother. I had NO IDEA he asked. Everyone played completely cool. Josh also told his parents he was planning to propose while we were visiting them for Christmas. Again, I had NO IDEA. Josh got Sarah, my matron of honor, to come from Georgia and shop for rings with him on MLK day while I worked. She made up an elaborate story of why she had to delete Life360 and his dad helped him change his find my iPhone location to his iPad. He told me he was going to work on that day for comp time and left his iPad at work so even if I checked, I wouldn’t know he wasn’t actually at work. Sarah and I had previous plans for us to spend the proposal weekend together, so Josh turned this into her distracting me as he set up the proposal! I felt like something was off because they were both being SO WEIRD all day. That afternoon, we went to the botanical gardens with Sarah, Neal, and Pearl. Josh kept trying to pull over to the side and talk to me and Pearl kept pulling us away. In the end, Pearl picked the perfect spot, and Josh asked if I wanted to take pictures with him. Instead of looking at the camera for pictures, he looked at me and started babbling about loving me. I truly have no idea what he said, but he pulled out a ring and asked me to marry him! The surprises didn’t stop with the proposal! Josh arranged for my parents and siblings and his brother and girlfriend to celebrate with us that night! It was so sweet and special, and I will remember that night forever!