We started off having mutual friends and slowly became friends over a year span. Depending on who you ask, there are obviously two different views to this story. Ashley, having no idea that Alsten was interested at all was clueless. Alsten, thought he was giving off so many subtle flirtatious hints that he was interested.

FGL Bar

At the end of September 2018 where both our party of friends came together to the FGL bar in downtown Nashville. Alsten had some liquid confidence in him to ask Ashley on date. Ashley kept brushing him off due to the liquid confidence and wanted to be asked in a different environment. Well, Alsten decided to take it to another level and borrowed our friend Abby's wedding ring, got down on one knee, and popped a question. Once again depending on who you are asking two different questions were heard.....Alsten says he said "Will you go on a date with me?" Ashley says he said "Will you marry me?" One may never find out what was truly said because of the pulsating music coming from the bar and the celebratory screams from some random North Carolina football fans yelling "Congrats!" to us. No matter how it was asked eventually Ashley agreed to the date.

First Date

Before Ashley would get in the truck with Alsten, apparently she said "Lets get this over with." (Alsten really wants people to know that detail.) They went to Dave and Busters for food and games and after he drove her around Percy Priest Dam. He was spotlighting something in the lake to show Ashley and had his flashlight near her head. Little did Ashley know that the flashlight also served as a taser and he had turned it on to scare her. (Ashley really wants you to know that detail.) Overall the date went really well.

Blossoming

It was hard living a little over an hour and a half apart, Ashley in Cookeville and Alsten in Nashville, but they still made their relationship work. They would talk on the phone every night, meet in Lebanon during the week for a weekday date, and go to see one another on the weekends.

The Move

There was a long discussion on where they would end up together and they both decided it would be best to be in Nashville. Many of their friends live there and it is halfway between both sets of parents. This brought many new beginnings for them both: a pandemic, buying a beautiful house together in Cane Ridge, a new job for Ashley, and an engagement...

July 21, 2020

Ashley was not having a good day. She still wasn't processed for her new job and they wanted her to do all these tasks but she couldn't because she wasn't processed. She had just got done working out when Alsten asked if she wanted to go to Lowes with him. She said she would and he then asked if she would like to shower and change clothes before they left. As stubborn as Ashley is obviously didn’t because in her words “No, we are just going to Lowes.” When they got back, Ashley had just poured a glass of water and Alsten was poking fun at her. She had enough and as she was turning around to tell him to stop she knocked over her glass of water and it went everywhere. She then proceeded to fall to her knees and have a meltdown. As she stood up and turned to get a towel to clean up, Alsten was telling her to turn around. When she did, he was down on one knee with a ring and asked her to marry him. It was perfectly special. Which brings us to why you are here for the wedding.

To be continued......