Zach and Becca met the summer of 2018, while both working at Lake Village in Yellowstone National Park. They first saw each other playing a game of pickle ball. The next day they bumped into each other at the Lake employee pub, where they talked for hours and ended the night playing piano together in the employee rec hall. They kept in touch on and off for a few years but never dated. It finally became serious when Zach joined the Army, and reached back out to Becca in December of 2021. They became official in June 2022, after Becca started telling people that her "boyfriend" was coming to visit her in Montana. (Zach had not officially been told of this yet). Once Zach arrived, they went to a local Bozeman park, where Zach made it official and asked Becca to be his girlfriend- for real. They dated long distance for 2 1/2 years- Becca in Gardiner, Montana and Zach stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. They got to see each other roughly once a month (shout out to Allegiant Airlines with the direct flight from Bozeman to Nashville!!!) and had many nightly phone calls and FaceTimes in between (even through a 9 month deployment to Germany for Zach). They would also spend Zach's summer and winter leave between South Carolina (where Zach is from), Ohio (where Becca is from), Montana (where Becca lives), and Tennessee (where Zach lives). Oof, we love to travel....

Christmas Eve 2024, Zach took Becca to Cuyahoga Valley National Park near Cleveland, Ohio while visiting Becca's family for the holidays. This being one of the first places they went together back in 2021, when they were getting serious about dating, it felt right that this be the place to ask for her hand in marriage. After a short walk on The Ledges Trail, they wound up at the top of the cliffsides, where they had hung out and talked those years before. While waiting for other Christmas hikers to leave, Zach and Becca exchanged heartfelt words, telling each other how much they meant to one another. After pouring into each other, and exchanging tears and hugs, Zach got down on a knee and asked Becca to marry him. She obviously said yes or else this webpage wouldn't exist.