Amanda has been falling for Wayne since 2008. Like literally falling for him. One of their first encounters was the Sarasota County Science fair during Wayne’s junior and Amanda’s freshman year at Sarasota High School. When the bus arrived at the science fair, Amanda decided to take a fall down the bus stairs in front of everyone. Like everyone saw… For the next few months, Amanda and Wayne passed notes back and forth in class in her science fair binder. Then a little bit later Amanda and Wayne attended another science fair at the University of Florida. This experience was a little bit different than the first. This time was a jail break. All the students were “supposed” to stay in their hotel rooms and were locked in, but Wayne and the boys had other ideas. Wayne and the boys decided to repel out the hotel window, only using tied bed sheets. Once they were free, they broke out the girls to walk across the street for some milkshakes at Steak N Shake.

Next comes Amanda’s sophomore and Wayne’s senior year. By that point Wayne was clearly on Amanda’s radar but Wayne was oblivious to it all. Wayne was one of the main drummers in the SHS drum line and Amanda, with the help of her best friend Valerie, made it their mission to be upfront every time the band was playing. Whether it was football games, morning march, pep rallies or just band practice. By the time football season was over, Wayne FINALLY was starting to get the hints. Every day after lunch, Amanda and Valerie “just happened” to run into Wayne on the way to chemistry, which most of the time were late to… Sorry Mr. Stevenson…. One day Wayne suggested Amanda and he go print their science fair boards together that afternoon and that’s how they exchanged numbers. After that they started talking more. Since Amanda wasn’t driving and Wayne had an awesome truck, carpooling started to become an easy way for Amanda and Wayne to hang out. Amanda and Valerie (mostly Valerie making her) conveniently happened to run into Wayne all over town. Whether it was school events, Steak N Shake, Taco Bell, or Wayne’s work (Winn Dixie) Amanda and Valerie “accidentally” ran into Wayne, ALWAYS. And by the end of the school year Wayne and Amanda became best friends. The summer after Wayne’s senior year was a whirlwind of truck rides, boat rides, late nights, lunches and laughter. Little did they know they were falling in love and had no clue what was in store for them.

Come August of 2010, Wayne was headed to Gainesville to attend UF and Amanda was then a junior at SHS. Only TWO days before headed off to the Swamp, Wayne asked Amanda to be his girlfriend. Long distance was not an easy start to their official relationship, but it gave Amanda excuses to travel up to Gainesville and go to as many Gator football games that she could. That year was filled with road trips back and forth between each of them and they survived.

The next year, Amanda’s last year at SHS, flew by. The anticipation of joining Wayne at UF was a killer. But on February 10, 2012 Amanda was accepted to UF! (PS. Valerie was accepted too, which was obviously exciting because she has been an integral part of Amanda’s life since the 9th grade!) All that was left keeping Amanda and Wayne apart was a Spring Break, Prom (at the Hyatt 😉), and a Graduation.

Welcome to the SWAMP!! In August of 2012 Wayne, Amanda, and Valerie all moved up to Gainesville to start their adventure as roommates. The next 3 years were filled with bleeding Orange and Blue, chomping in the Swamp, Midnight Cookies, Tijuana Flats, Gymnastics meets, scuba diving, laughter, tears, and more memories than could ever be written down.

In January 2016, Wayne and Amanda were tested again. Wayne had recently graduated from Rinker School of Building Construction with his B.S. in Building Construction and was starting a career with DPR in Orlando, FL to work on the new Coke-a-Cola building in Disney Springs. A year after that, he then moved to Jacksonville, FL to work on the Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Research Center. During this time, Amanda was finishing up her last 2 years at UF, completing her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, while being the local Gainesville weather girl. However, the distance didn’t get in the way. Only an hour and a half away, they kept up their weekends filled with delicious food, scuba diving, and theme parks.

In April 2017, Amanda graduated from UF and a month later moved to Myrtle Beach, SC to join WBTW News 13 as a meteorologist. Unfortunately, this meant the distance was further between them, but it did not stop their love from growing. Five and a half hours is a long way. So, on October, 16 2017, Wayne no longer just wanted to be Amanda’s friend and asked her to be his wife. And of course, you wouldn’t still be reading this if she didn’t say YES!

How he did it:

Wayne was nervous, and Amanda knew something was up. She drove the five and half hours on her weekend, Monday and Tuesday, to hang out for a couple days. Wayne had ‘something planned.’ As soon as he told her they were planning on staying at a Bed and Breakfast down in St. Augustine, she knew it was special, but she didn’t know just how special it was going to get. She arrives to Jacksonville at 6 am after driving all night after her shift in Myrtle Beach. She told Wayne to go to work in the morning so she could sleep a couple hours before they hung out. Wayne did not go to work. Instead, he spent the morning perfecting his proposal. He hooked up and drove their 17’ Angler boat down to St. Augustine, and after several hurdles, eventually got in dumped in and docked at the marina near their BnB. Wayne drove all the way back to Jacksonville and bought a large DSLR camera (which will come in later). After that he was ready to head down there with Amanda. They did, Amanda was skeptical, because they didn’t do these weekend trips very often.

When they arrived, the BnB was so awesome. They had some cheese, fruit and wine downstairs and then Wayne told Amanda to hurry up and get ready. Amanda was not sure for what and asked her million questions like normal. She finally got out of him that she had to be ready before sunset. Amanda knew. They leave the BnB and start walking down the street. Wayne has a bag; a big bag and Amanda was curious. They arrive at the marine after a couple of blocks and start walking on the docks. Amanda thought they were renting a boat, or he was going to propose right then and there. However, not a few seconds later, they walk up to their boat!! Amanda was shocked. They get on the boat and Amanda really knows by now and is excited. Captain Wayne is trying to avoid the waves, but it was windy, haha! They got out in the middle of the pass, pretty close to the beach though still, Porpoise Point. Wayne has Amanda throw the anchor…. several times for it to be perfect, and the current and waves were all not cooperating. Eventually they got it just right, Wayne walked to the front of the boat and proposed there.

It was perfect and quite funny as well. Amanda always wanted pictures her proposal and Wayne tried, he really tried! He had a GoPro set up on the bow of the boat, only to cut Amanda’s head off but got Wayne perfectly down on one knee! Wayne ALSO suckered Ryan, a great friend, in to taking pictures all the way from the beach!! Only to have Amanda’s back turned toward him. Overall though it was perfect in every way. They ended up beaching the boat so Ryan could take a few pictures of them on the beach and they turned out great. Once the sun had fully set and darkness was taking over, they docked the boat and Wayne had dinner planned at Columbia, was of Amanda’s favorites. Ryan and Lauren met us there and we had the best night celebrating!