Jace and Kady were introduced to each other senior year of high school. Jace’s brother, Tyler, and a friend Kady played volleyball with thought it would be a great idea for them to go to Prom together. Kady was initially pretty hesitant to meet Jace, as she was leaving for college in Colorado in the next few months and did not want to get involved with anyone. Kady’s friend insisted and claimed that Jace was a sweet and athletic guy....and that this was just supposed to be a casual date for prom so what could it hurt, right? Kady and Jace met briefly on St. Patrick’s Day of 2012 at Pat Clark’s place for a party. Kady vividly remembers how goofy Jace looked that night with his beard dyed green and festive holiday attire. They played a few games of beer pong, awkwardly smiled at each other all night, and exchanged numbers at the end of the evening. They texted each other for the next few weeks leading up to prom to coordinate details, but the mental image of Jace’s green beard had scarred Kady. In fact, the hours leading up to Prom, Kady was getting cold feet about the evening. Kady’s mom had to convince her that the months of preparation for this evening could not go to waste and that her hair was just too perfect to not go out that night. When the families met at The JW Marriott for group pictures, both Laura and Deanna said they could see the sparks flying between the two. Turns out this casual “blind date” turned out to be love at f̶i̶r̶s̶t̶ second sight.....

Jace and Kady dated for three wonderful years after their prom date. They had endured a long distance relationship for their first year apart in college, and even had the chance to attend Colorado Mesa University together for some time. Sadly, midway through sophomore year of college they parted ways. Throughout their time apart Kady and Jace both did a lot of growing up. Kady graduated from college and Jace graduated from the police academy. They both weathered the storms of other relationships and subsequent break-ups. They always kept in contact to wish each other happy birthday or happy holidays and to check on each others' families. Ever so often Jace would ask to casually meet for coffee or lunch to catch up. Kady finally took him up on his offer and invited him to meet her at a friend's bar golf birthday party in January 2019 (google what that is if you don't know). They had not seen each other in five years, so they were both very nervous. But, even after all of those years apart, nothing had changed. The sparks and connection they had made were still as strong as ever. There is a cliche saying: "If you love something let it go, if it comes back it's yours forever. If it doesn't, then it was never meant to be". Need we say more.....Kady & Jace were meant to be.

The plans had been set for about a week - Kady and Jace were going to go to a nice brunch together before he had to go into work Sunday night. Tyler had told Jace that The Hawthorn Grill at JW Marriott had a nice brunch special so that was the game plan. Jace had been acting a little weird that morning; he was usually slow to get out of bed but was suspiciously peppy this morning. When they got to the Marriott they were walking through the garden and Jace stopped by a tree and said "Hey babe, look its where we took our prom pictures". Kady stopped, turned around to look at where Jace was pointing and said "No, pretty sure that's not it. Let's go I'm hangry". Jace grabbed her hand when she tried to walk away and said "No babe, look". Kady turned around to see Jace down on one knee, in the exact same spot they had taken their first picture together. As he was asking Kady to be his wife, his sister Cierra and her friend Carolina, popped out and had been taking pictures capturing the special moment. The surprises didn't stop there. Jace had taken the entire day off from work, and had our mothers planning a surprise Engagement BBQ. Kady, now completely starving but overflowing with joy over the engagement, thought they were just driving back to his house to have a breakfast together. When they opened the door, they walked into a house full of all of their closest family and friends and celebrated the rest of the day!