We're tying the knot!

(Jaci's POV) Ty will tell you that I slid into his "DM's" and he's not exactly wrong. During the Covid-era, Ty was still living in Richmond, VA and I was living in Palm Coast with my kids. We ended up connecting online via Instagram, when Ty popped up as a "Suggested Follow" for me, based on the fact that we had over 200 mutual friends. We bonded over working out, which was primarily therapy for me, and part of a family weight-loss challenge and sheer boredom for Ty. When things opened up in Florida, but not in Virginia, and the holidays rolled around, Ty decided to pack up a U-Haul and come down for an extended visit with family & friends. Since he was coming down, he asked me out on a date, and as they say: "the rest is history." When Ty headed back to Richmond after the holiday season, we decided it was worth pursuing a long distance relationship. After several months, and monthly trips, Ty requested to continue his work-from-home, but from Florida. Much to not only my delight, but to his local friends & family, he officially moved back to Palm Coast in the summer of 2021 and our story continued from there.

Flash forward to the spring of 2022, when our mutual friend Kayla sent a save-the-date for her wedding in November in Austin, Tx. It worked out well for us, since we were already planning to head to the Lone Star State that same weekend for the Ty's annual UF MBA away game trip to see the Gators play Texas A&M. We booked our flights, rooms & car for the long weekend of back & forth between Austin and College Station, but were looking forward to celebrating both things in one weekend. We arrived in Austin, and went to check-in for our requested early check-in at the gorgeous Driskill Hotel. Unfortunately, our room wasn't ready, and so the staff upgraded us to a balcony suite overlooking the city. Little did I know that this worked well for Ty's plans for us later. We got in earlier than most of the other guests, so Ty had planned for us to head to the river for a walk to a well-known overlook of the Austin skyline before the rest of our friends arrived. We strolled hand-in-hand along the walkway, leading up to the overlook. I was oblivious to most of our surroundings and was commenting on the massive amount of turtles huddling on a rock, when Ty finally pointed out large letters on the ground in front of us that spelled out MARRY ME. I didn't hear our favorite songs playing, and I didn't see the photographer (who'd he'd booked and planned out the whole surprise for him) as he got down on one knee and asked me to be his forever. (I obviously said 'yes,' or I wouldn't be writing this.) We returned to the Driskill, and my second surprise was that EVERYONE ELSE already knew about the proposal, and were all waiting to celebrate with us. I was completely surprised that he was able to pull off such an amazing proposal in a city we'd never been to, and amongst the chaos of wedding events and a football game, but overall, I was grateful.

We've been debating so many different options for how we want to celebrate our forever with our friends and family, and it finally came down to this. I think if we kept looking at (and ruling out) options, we'd never get married. We've chosen to exchange our vows in a small, immediate family only ceremony at the stunning Baughman Center Chapel on UF grounds in Gainesville, and then hope to hop on a quick cruise with all of you just a month later. We knew this would be a fun and family-friendly (if you want it to be!) way to celebrate our wedding and we hope you can make it! More details on the cruise can be found on the Cruise tab, and please be sure to RSVP when you've made your decision.