We both went to Holmen Middle School and Holmen High School together. We knew of each other in middle school, but the first romantic encounter we had was going to the homecoming dance together Sophomore year. Travis showed up an hour late, which won't surprise anyone who knows him well. I sat in the car with my parents who both began insisting that I just go into the dance and have fun with my friends but I was determined he was going to show! Better late than never right?! After the dance we dated for about a week and then went our separate ways while remaining acquaintances in a couple high school classes, but not talking outside of that. We reunited through Facebook in October of 2013 after I posted a lame sappy status asking why a girl can't find a nice guy and he reached out to me through messenger. We chatted for a while and decided to hang out! After a few dates, he made it official on November 7, 2013 and from there we began to build our love story including traveling together, moving into a tiny efficiency apartment, upgrading to a town home where we were able to get our fur baby Ranger, and eventually buying a house! After five and a half years of dating (and about two years of me frequently hinting at putting a ring on it), he finally proposed!

We went to California for a week for our friends' wedding. Prior to leaving for the trip, multiple friends had asked if I thought Travis was going to propose there. My answer every time: "There is no way he would get a ring to California without me knowing, I do all of our packing!". On our 2nd day of the trip we visited Yosemite National Park. As we admired the views of El Capitan, I jokingly told Travis "If you have a ring in your pocket, now would be a good time!" He laughed like he always did when I made those comments and changed the topic. Little did I know, he had the ring but was waiting to propose until after Paul and Nichole's wedding! At their wedding reception, we caught the bouquet and garter and I was ecstatic! His plan was to propose the next day at Big Sur, but of course things didn't go as planned. On our way to visit his family in Santa Barbara, he wanted to drive through Big Sur. It was about an hour out of the way, but I thought why not! We drove about 40 minutes and discovered that there was a marathon going on and all of Highway 1 was shut down through Big Sur. Travis was so upset and I didn't know why; he is usually the flexible one when things don't go as planned. The next day, we made the trip back to Big Sur, and our friend Jake came along. Travis wanted to see McWay Falls which is 1 of 2 natural waterfalls that goes directly into the ocean in CA. We finally got there and the path that you were supposed to be able to take to go down by the waterfall was closed. He was bummed, but as we watched the waterfall empty into the ocean, he put his arm around me and told me he loved me. My heart started racing and I started thinking "This is it! He's going to propose!". Jake had gone to the car to get the ring and by the time he came back, I had talked myself back out if it: "Briana, you're crazy, he didn't bring a ring to California!". Well... I was wrong. He turned around and got down on one knee and proposed and I couldn't have been happier!