This is a child-free event. No kids are allowed. You will be asked to leave if you bring children or an uninvited date.
Nick and Avery initially met their Junior year at Texas A&M University through mutual friends at a fraternity Bid Day party. Not by chance, though, as Nick had repeatedly asked Avery's friends to convince her to come to Bid Day with Pi Kappa Alpha so he could formally meet her. While Avery had fun and enjoyed getting to know Nick, this social event was the first one after her mother passed away. It was silently understood that now was not the right time for anything romantic to progress.
That semester, Avery had the grand idea of trying to win over Nick - lie about wanting to learn the game of hockey so she could see him more. One night, Avery texted Nick asking to learn about the Stars and asked him to teach her the rules. He agreed, but she had one condition - if you're going to make me learn extra things outside of classwork, bring a 6-pack of Shiner Bock. This became their weekly tradition Fall Semester of their Senior Year. This was great, however, the entire friend group saw through the facade. The pair had to get creative with hiding their weekly hockey huddle, but fell off as the semester went on and classes, work, and extracurriculars got in the way.
Throughout that academic year, Nick and Avery remained good friends. This was mostly by force due to their friend group, but feelings lingered despite efforts to smother them. During Summer 2017, Nick studied abroad in Barcelona. Despite 5,242 miles between them, Nick made sure to stay in contact with Avery while she worked at YMCA Camp Grady Spruce. She jokingly asked him to write her via postcard while he solo traveled during his final weeks, but he did not think the mail would get to camp prior to Avery leaving for A&M. She didn't care, though, and asked him to make it happen one way or another. The week Nick got home, Avery came over to hang out with him and hear all his stories. The minute she walked into his townhouse, Nick paused mid-sentence and ran upstairs to bring down a surprise. Lo and behold, he wrote her nine times during his final two weeks abroad just as she asked. She has kept these postcards to this day.
While life had different plans for them after their senior year, Avery and Nick managed to reconnect years later. Nick was going through his clinical rotations in New York City and Avery was building her career in Birmingham, AL. Despite the distance, Nick could not go one day without talking to Avery. That Fall, they went on their first official date to a Dallas Stars hockey game. The morning after, Nick's dad stated "something must be special about that girl, because I've never seen you pay so little attention to Dallas Stars hockey in your life."
Life got hard. Medical school had Nick working 15-hour days, taking 9-hour qualifying exams, and moving from NYC to Miami and Houston and back. Work had Avery traveling between multiple states monthly, handling employee deaths, terminations, and COVID. While emotions were high, the two could not part ways. Even when they agreed to split and give each other space, one of them always had to break the silence. Both parties have always been bulls in a china shop, but the connection they share forced them to back down and work through every rough patch they faced.
Nick asked Avery to follow him wherever he matched for Residency during the Winter of 2022. The thought of possibly moving out of Texas again terrified Avery, but the thought of her losing Nick was worse. Nick matched in Houston at one of his top programs and the pair moved down that Summer.
Nick had always been apprehensive to dating Avery in order to spare the friend group any despair if things didn't pan out. However, life kept bringing the two together and after moving to Houston together, Nick realized how much he missed out on. While he endured the hardships of intern year and Avery switched from human resources to sales, life for them made sense. Even adopting Raven, their beloved geriatric black cat, somehow made life so much sweeter. No matter the issue, the pair worked through things with ease. Nick knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Avery. He knew he would never fully know God's plans for his life, but as long as he had Avery, things would turn out alright.
Avery joined Nick's family on their yearly ski trip in Park City, Utah. She had made a clear rule of not proposing on her birthday or a holiday because "that's the lazy way out." On February 12th, Nick and Avery went on a carriage ride with family friends to see Park City at night. It was 8 degrees and Avery was underdressed, so she was miserable. Afterwards, everyone headed downtown to meet up for dinner and drinks. The Earlys insisted on taking pictures at the Bear statue downtown. Avery begrudgingly complied, hoping it would be a quick pic or two then everyone would be fireside with red wine and a cheesy appetizer. Nick asked Avery to take a picture under a light fixture after, prolonging her from warmth. Nick even asked to hold her hand, but Avery said no. This caused Nick to lose his train of thought, so he popped on one knee and asked her to marry him five times, not hearing her through the cold wind. She said yes and the rest was history.