We're getting married

The proposal was magical. Nick and Katie were visiting Southern California for the first time in over a year (thanks COVID). It was a jam packed weekend. Nick and Katie had planned to go to the beach to have burgers and watch the sunset along with Katie's parents and Grandma. Little did Katie know there was a lot going on behind the scenes. Nick had been coordinating with Katie's sister Julia for months to make it the perfect engagement. After arriving at sunset they started walking to the beach and there was a beautiful trellis (made by Katie's dad) and candles set up. Nick said to Katie, "WOW how pretty maybe we should go stand under it." Katie knew at that moment this was it. After a few minutes of soaking up the moment and the sunset, Nick got down on one knee and Katie SAID YES! All of a sudden the whole beach was cheering and walking towards them. Katie started to panic as the strangers started approaching. Nick said, "Look a little closer." Then Katie realized that the beach was full of her aunts, uncles and cousins. All cheering and congratulating them. Afterwards, everyone celebrated with pizza, champagne and a bonfire.

Katie and I meeting was a strange sequence of coincidences. It was March 2018. I was in pilot training at the time and unbeknownst to me, Katie was living in Austin. A friend of hers from high school in California, funny enough, was also a student (and later an instructor pilot like me). She gave Katie my phone number, and about a week later we went on our first date in New Braunfels, TX. After that, we continued talking to each other every day while still living in different towns, until I finally asked Katie if she would be my girlfriend a few months later. The rest, as they say, is history!