Kelli and I are living proof that meeting on a dating app does work! I had gone through several dating sites with no success and was close to giving up on them when I had a message on Bumble from a beautiful girl. I remember the excitement to see the message was from Kelli. The message was simple. It said "Hi" and it's the "Hi" that changed my life forever. I responded back quickly and recall saying that she had made my night hearing from her. We talked back and forth on Bumble for a couple days and then talked on the phone. One week after we started talking, we went on our first date to Taco Mama and then to Jeni's Ice Cream in Nashville.

It was a cloudy Saturday night in late August and I made a reservation (which I never do) at her favorite restaurant, Hampton Social. I had everything planned out but the weather did not want to cooperate as storms were rolling in that evening. I had a small window to get Kelli to the Pedestrian Bridge in Downtown Nashville, along with both of our parents who had driven in from Mississippi and Alabama unbeknownst to her. Also a huge shoutout to one of Kelli's bridesmaids, Meg Cockrum, who helped me plan this proposal. After dinner, I told Kelli I wanted to go for a walk while scrambling to make sure the proposal didn't happen in the pouring rain. We got to the top of the bridge and saw our parents and knew I needed to make this happen quickly before the rain. Thankfully, I beat the rain and proposed and she said yes. Kelli wasn't aware that Meg was taking photos or that her mom was running towards her. After she said yes, I told her that there were a few people that wanted to celebrate with her which is when she realized who all was there for the wonderful occasion. We went and celebrated with our families afterwards with coffee and cake downtown as the rain held off just in time!