Alyssa's POV:

Robert and I met at one of our mutual friends' weddings (thank you, Brit and Richard!) in April of 2022. At the time, I was in my first year of teaching in San Antonio, teaching 4th grade and having an amazing time. I was spending most of my time in Austin with friends and had decided to begin interviewing for teaching jobs in Austin for the following school year. At the time, I thought Austin was where I would be for the rest of my life! As we know, God always has a plan.

While going through the interview process, I had an interview the day before the wedding we met at. Afterwards, I drove from Austin to Comfort, TX. On the way there, my mom jokingly told my friend and me that "we needed to find some nice young men to dance with at the wedding." She almost never makes remarks like that, so looking back, it was ironic for her to say that!

The wedding was a college reunion and an amazing time! We were also celebrating my friend's birthday that day, as well as KU making it to the Final Four that night. As the night continued, I had no idea that the man I was going to marry was in the room.

My friends and I decided to go outside and start talking to whoever would listen to us, as we normally did, and that's when I saw Robert. I went right up to him, introduced myself, and asked the usual questions: "Where did you go to school?" I found out that he also went to Texas Tech, and we quickly put together puzzle pieces of how we knew some of the same people, how we ended up being at the same places at the same time, and how we were so close to each other in distance for three years. I asked things like, "When did you graduate?" I found out that he graduated a year before me during COVID. "How old are you then?" He is two years older than me. We ended up talking the entire rest of the wedding, and I remember celebrating with sparklers, walking around the city of Comfort together, and having the best time.

Fast forward through the night—one of the funniest things to this day is that, even after all the time we spent together, Robert called me "Allison." I was so confused and, quite frankly, died laughing. Robert made a joke about it, we both laughed it off, and it has now become a running joke among his friend group that I’ve grown so close to, and who were also there.

We ended up staying up all night under a pavilion at the hotel and talked about everything. I remember him telling me about his love for hunting, his dog Bo, his job, and how he lived in Dallas, meaning we would have to do long distance if it turned into something. However, knowing that didn't scare me away from getting to know him. That feeling that some describe as "you just know" was the best way I could describe how it felt with Robert that night. Did I know immediately that he was going to be my husband? No. But I did know that something in my heart was telling me he was special, and that feeling was right.

Fast forward to our first official date. Funny enough, he texted me the next day (I still have the screenshot), saying, "If you're ever in Dallas, let me know!" I was planning to be there two weeks after the wedding to celebrate my sister-in-law Hannah joining the Catholic Church.

During those two weeks, we texted the longest paragraphs I’ve ever typed to date, just asking any and everything to get to know each other better. We then made plans for our first date in Dallas. We ended up going to Joe Leo’s, right next to his old apartment, and were no kidding, the last two in the restaurant that night. We walked over to Mayer’s Garden, and again, ended up being the last two at the bar that night. I remember knowing then.

Now here we are, almost three years later. I ended up staying a year in Austin and had an amazing time living with two of my best friends in a great area, and I gained more experience at a school in Austin teaching 4th grade. During long distance, Robert and I FaceTimed all the time, traveled up and down I-35, and saw each other almost every weekend. We met each other's family and friends, showed each other where the other grew up, and introduced my golden retriever, Levi, to his lab Bo, who are now inseparable. We took lots of trips, went to lots of weddings, and made the decision together that it was time for us to end long distance! I made the move up to Dallas, began teaching at my incredible school, Robert joined the Catholic Church, and our relationship grew stronger with each passing day.

Lastly, our engagement is a story I will never get tired of telling. I was so anxious about when Robert was going to ask me. We had been ring shopping multiple times, talked about all of our future plans, and I knew it was coming, I just didn’t know when. We had a trip planned to Cancun with my family for a long time, and everyone in our lives did an amazing job of making me feel like I could never truly pinpoint when it was happening. We spent a couple of days in Cancun before he proposed, so in my head, it wasn’t going to happen on the trip. Little did I know!

My mom did an amazing job of planning "family photos" months in advance of the trip, so I truly thought that was what we were doing. She had told me to pack a white and a blue dress because, "either would look good with the ocean". She didn’t give me any hints or reasons to believe it could be anything else. When we were all in the pool at the resort about to get ready for "family photos", I asked my mom and sister in laws what color they were wearing. We all agreed to wear white, even though they ended up in blue and had the plan all along, I still had no idea. Even up until the moment we were ready to go, Robert was looking out the window and said, "Brandon and Hannah are on their way to the beach. We should probably go." I couldn't see out the window from where I was, so I had no reason to believe it wasn't true! Now, I was late for dinner the night before, so I was in a rush not to be the last one for pictures.

I pretty much ran down to the beach using the maps my mom had sent in our family group chat for where to meet. I remember Robert calling me frantically because he was way behind me looking for our photographer, saying, "Alyssa, please wait!" That was when I had the feeling.

He came up to me, and it was all over his face. He has never been a good liar, and I just knew immediately. My head was instantly rushing with 100 questions, but he guided me down, photographer in tow, and asked me to marry him. It was the most magical time of my life.

Now, as I sit here writing this, all I know is that I can't wait to see what our future holds, and I can’t express how excited I am to spend the rest of my life with Robert. I knew it was him all along.

Robert's POV:

Alyssa and I met at our friend's, Richard and Brittany’s wedding. At the time, I had been out of college for almost two years, and this was one of the rare occasions when all of my college friends were in the same place. The boys were back in town, so to speak.

A couple of friends and I were standing at the wedding when Alyssa, in her now-infamous purple dress, walked up and struck up a conversation with me. As we talked, I quickly realized that if I had any shot with her, I might need to trade my whiskey for water. From that moment on, we were inseparable.

After the wedding, we were walking to meet up with our friends when, somehow, we managed to get lost—in a town of only a couple of thousand people. We wandered, talking for what felt like hours, until we eventually found ourselves in the courtyard of her hotel. We sat by the fire until the early morning hours, but eventually, I had to call it a night. As I was leaving, I made the mistake of calling her “Allison.” I was sure I had completely blown it—but to my surprise, she just started laughing.

The next day, on the drive back to Dallas, I jokingly told Paul and Shantus, “I think I’m in love.” They convinced me to text her, so I sent, “If you’re ever in Dallas, let me know!” To my surprise, she responded, telling me she’d be there in two weeks to celebrate her sister-in-law, Hannah, joining the Catholic Church. Sure enough, we set up a date soon after.

Leading up to that first date, we texted every day. The more we talked, the more I realized this was something special. When we finally went out, we picked up right where we had left off. We talked until the restaurant closed and were eventually asked to leave. Instead of calling it a night, we walked to a nearby bar and kept talking until we were some of the last people there. After that night, our texts turned into FaceTime calls, and before long, we were officially dating.

Not long after, Alyssa moved to Austin. We spent the next year driving up and down I-35 to see each other, visiting the places we grew up and meeting each other’s families and friends. During that time, our dogs became best friends—though Levi was much more excited to see Bo than Bo was to see him at first. By the end of the year, we made the decision for Alyssa to move to Dallas, and at that point, we both knew what the next step was.

Throughout Alyssa’s first year in Dallas, we knew this was forever. It didn’t take long before the pressure to propose started to build. She always told me there was no way I could surprise her—after all, she had her family’s location and would know if something was happening. What she didn’t know was that I had already been planning to propose on a trip with her family that had been set for months.

On the day of the proposal, while we were getting ready for “family pictures,” the nerves hit me full force. I couldn’t sit still in our room while she was getting ready, and it didn’t take long for her to notice. When she asked if I was feeling alright, I panicked and told her I wasn’t feeling well—then hid in the bathroom for the next ten minutes until it was time to leave.

The photographer was supposed to meet us at our building, but when we stepped outside, they were nowhere to be found. I kept trying to stall, but Alyssa was determined not to be late to another family event on the trip. When I ran back inside to check again and returned to find her gone, I called her, telling her to stop. Still, she insisted she couldn’t be late. It wasn’t until I finally said, “Trust me,” that it clicked.

As I caught up with her, she knew—and I wasn’t trying to hide it anymore. The staff took our shoes and belongings as we made our way down to the beach. My well-rehearsed speech went out the window the moment my feet touched the sand. But in the end, I remembered the most important part: “Will you spend the rest of your life with me?”

I can’t wait to spend forever with Alyssa. I think we both knew from very early on that this was it—that we had found our person.