As most of you probably know, Josh and I did band at ECU - colorguard for me, drumline for him. We tended to hang out within our sections of the band, rarely interacting with one another, that was until the county fair came to town. The way Josh likes to tell the story, he tricked me into a double date of sorts at the Pitt County Fair... which to be fair, is probably the easiest way to explain our first date! He wanted to go to the fair with his best good buddy and roommate, Mike, who at the time was in a relationship with my Colorguard Big. She ended up inviting me to the fair, saying there would be "some drumline guys there". I didn't know it would just be Josh & Mike! We had a great time at the fair and Josh even offered to win me a prize (stud muffin alert!). A few days after the fair, he invited me to dinner, just the two of us! Unfortunately, I had plans to watch Pretty Little Liars with some friends and had to turn him down :( But! He was charmingly persistent and he invited me again a week later and I knew I had to go! We went on our first "official" date to the Hibachi Express on 10th Street in Greenville and we were pretty much inseparable after that!

Fast forward almost 5 and a half years and Josh and I had planned a trip to Wilmington for a quick weekend getaway. Josh and I have always loved Wilmington and the beach in general so I was looking forward to escaping reality for a few days! The week leading up to our trip, Josh got super sick and I was absolutely convinced he had the flu. He ended up calling out of work on the Wednesday before our trip and at that point I told him to go ahead and cancel our hotel for Friday. Josh was very, very adamant about not canceling, but I didn't see the point of going to the beach if he was going to be sick and miserable the whole time! Reluctantly, he canceled our reservation and after doing so, he didn't leave the bed for like 30 hours. Thursday morning, Josh was feeling slightly better and was determined that the show must go on! For the life of me, I couldn't understand why he wanted to go to Wilmington so damn bad! Little did I know he had been planning our proposal for that Saturday! On Thursday, he rebooked our hotel and Friday, after work, we set out for the beach. Saturday morning, we got breakfast and I noticed Josh wasn't eating too much. He told me it was because he wasn't feeling to great, but looking back on it, he was just super anxious! After breakfast, we went down to Wrightsville Beach with some folding chairs and a backpack stuffed with blankets (it's cold at the beach in February!). Josh brought his GoPro and set it up to "get some cool time lapses of the waves and sky" and we just relaxed on the beach, bundled up under some blankets. After 20 minutes or so, Josh whipped out a photo book that he made that highlighted all the cool things we've done and places we've been in the 5 years we were together. The last page of the book was titled "Our Next Big Adventure" and that's when Josh stood me up and proposed to me! I was so surprised and so excited to say YES to my best friend!!!

After wiping the tears from our eyes and taking a ton of pictures, we went back to the hotel and put some nice clothes on - Josh told me that he had made dinner reservations back in Cary and we had to hit the road to make our reservation! The whole drive back felt like a blur and I was so ecstatic to finally be officially engaged! We pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant called Maximillian's Grill & Wine Bar and I was eager to eat our first meal as an engaged couple. When we went in, Josh ushered me passed the host stand and took me straight upstairs where several of our closest friends and family were waiting to celebrate our big day with us!!! It was the perfect way to end such a spectacular day!!!