Ashley and Aaron first met in the fall of 1999 when Ashley was a sophomore, and Aaron a senior at Air Academy High School. The two were introduced by a mutual friend, Amanda, who was supposed to give Ashley a ride home after Montage rehearsal but ended up having to stay late. Not wanting Ashley to have to call her Mom, Amanda asked Aaron if he could give Ashley a ride home.

During the drive home the two made friendly conversation and upon arriving at Ashley’s house, she promptly thanked him for the ride, wished him a good night and went inside thinking nothing more about the nice senior who’d given her a ride home. While Ashley thought nothing of the encounter, Aaron found himself taken with the friendly and vivacious sophomore.

The next evening, while in her room studying, Ashley heard the doorbell ring and her mother answer it only to then call for Ashley saying there was a boy there to see her. Wondering who could possibly be at the door, Ashley made her way to it only to find Aaron standing on her parents front porch with half a dozen long stem red roses in hopes that Ashley would agree to go on a date with him that weekend. After checking with her Mom, Ashley accepted the flowers and readily agreed.

From that moment on, the two agreed to be boyfriend and girlfriend and eventually fell in love with one another. After 6 months of dating (a lifetime when you’re in high school), Ashley’s best friend at the time, interfered in the happy couples bliss and stole Aaron away. (Their relationship lasted only a couple weeks and that friend is no longer a part of Ashley’s life).

For the rest of the school year and over the next 6 years, Aaron and Ashley found they were still drawn to one another but they couldn’t get it together enough to attempt a reconciliation. After years of will they, won’t they, the two met up one final time in May 2006 after Ashley graduated from college.

Over the next 14 years, Aaron and Ashley would have their lives filled with ups and downs, never communicating and believing that their story was at an end. That is until one day in January 2020 when Ashley found a message from Aaron on her Instagram asking to meet up. After contemplating whether or not to meet him, Ashley finally agreed out of sheer curiosity about what he could possibly want after all this time.

The two met for dinner at Lazy Dog where it was discovered that Aaron wanted to make an attempt at being friends now that they were both older and he was more mature. After confirming that all he wanted was to be friends, Ashley agreed. Ashley and Aaron would meet one more time in person for dinner in February before the world shut down for months due to the COVID pandemic.

Throughout the rest of 2020, the friends would keep in touch. Asking after one another’s well being, and whether or not Ashley still had a job as the airlines were laying off people due to the drop in travel demand.

Finally in the spring of 2021, Ashley and Aaron agreed to meet up for dinner again on June 8th to catch up after not having seen one another in over a year. It was during this meeting that Aaron informed Ashley that he’d done a lot of thinking over the sixteen months and had come to the realization that he still cares for Ashley and wanted a second chance at love with her.

Having already had her heart broken by Aaron once before, Ashley made a point to share with to him just how much their breakup had hurt her decades before. Aaron sat quietly while Ashley unloaded on him, never once interjecting or arguing with her, but instead apologizing to her once she was done. Seeing that he meant his apology, and having always held a place for him in her heart (he was her first love after all), Ashley agreed to give him, and them, a second chance.

From there, the former high school sweethearts got to know who one another were now as adults. The rest of that summer and fall would see the couple enjoying many adventures from going to see Hall & Oates with Ashley’s mom to Aaron taking Ashley to her first Broncos game. Ashley in turn introduced Aaron to the Opera (something that he enjoyed and now attends regularly with her). By the beginning of November, Aaron asked Ashley to move in with him, something she eventually agreed to with the stipulation not until January when she had her next vacation. The couple would go on to enjoy many adventures together from vacations to sporting events to hiking.

With the couple talking sporadically about marriage and both admitting that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together, it was on February 3, 2024 at Sandals in Ocho Rios where Aaron would finally get down on one knee in their private, Romeo & Juliet Honeymoon Butler Villa and ask Ashley to marry him, a question that Ashley readily agreed to.