We met while Brooks was out on tour and he was in NYC for 2 days. We met up for a drink at The Rum House in Times Square, and after I went to watch him play his show at the Playstation Theater. I remember he texted me after his last song and before their encore, and said “Don’t leave, meet me in the greenroom after the set”. And so I did! We hit it off quickly and chatted for a bit until I said I had to go. He walked me to my car, and kissed me on the cheek and said “I’ll see you soon”. It was only a few weeks before Brooks had booked a flight back to spend a 4 day weekend with me. During that 4 days, it almost seemed as if our futures were clearly spelled out for us. I remember coming home from that weekend and telling my best friend, “You’re going to call me crazy, but I swear to God I’m in love with this man”. We laughed, but I still couldn’t fight that feeling. We talked non stop while we were away from each other. Constantly talking about plans of when we’d be seeing each other next. Only 2 weeks after our long weekend, he changed his flight home from Australia, and rerouted to Newark Airport. Everything was solidified between us and we new it wouldn’t be much longer before we wouldn’t *be able* to part. It took only a few flights for each of us back and forth from NJ - Tallahassee, until we really knew that we couldn’t live without each other (and definitely couldn’t live with the distance). It only took about 2 short months before Brooks packed up and made the move to New Jersey. Where we purchased our home, and started our new life together. With our now little perfect new addition to our family; our beautiful baby girl Brooklyn Jae.

Gosh! 15 is a big number for us now! Brooklyn’s birthday, and our engagement date! Well, it started with Brooks telling me to make a reservation to our favorite restaurant. It was a random Thursday, we love this place and frequent there, and so I thought nothing of it. He asked me to see if my mom would watch Brooklyn so that we could have a night out. (Again, I didn’t think anything of it). The ONLY time I thought something was off, was when we got the check. I was finishing my drink, and noticed Brooks was rushing out without finishing his beer. (Highly unlikely he would ever do this LOL). So we got in the car to head to my parent’s to pick up Brooklyn. On the way there, instead of making a left towards their house, he made a right and said he wanted to stop at the beach that we go to down the street from our house before the sun set. Now, him not finishing his beer to not miss the sun setting sky made sense to me. This is also something we do frequently and so again, not a huge indication of anything different. We were standing at the top of the dunes chatting and watching the ocean until he pulled a box out of his back pocket and my brain and heart just went a million different peaceful and ecstatic places all at once. It was the most perfect, genuine, and intimate proposal filled with such love, solace, and gratitude. It could not have been more of an “us” way of asking me for forever.