On Sunday, August 23, 2020, I attended my friend Haley Hughes’ Murder Mystery birthday party in Knoxville, TN. Haley and her sisters Riley and Baily had been wanting to set Justin and me up for a while, so this party served as the perfect front. (I’m still not sure that Haley was actually turning 30 ;) Haha!)

I had no idea that there was any kind of set up involved at this party, but I LOVE any reason to dress in costume, so I went all out in my Murder in Sin City role of Colleen Candy. This included a gold sequin mini dress and rhinestone fishnets. Justin played the role of Full House Frank who, according to the game, “has also fallen in love with (Collen), but (she) does not return the feelings.”

As soon as Haley arrived at the party, she filled me in on what was going on, and said, “I need you to fall in love tonight.” Thankfully, my character description and my true feelings did not match up, and I wasn’t sure how Justin felt that night, but I was definitely interested.

After the longest three days of my life, on Wednesday, August 26, Justin followed me on Instagram and sent me a message. We immediately started talking every day and have never stopped. On September 19, Justin drove to Nashville to spend the day with me, and aside from not realizing that he tried to kiss me twice, the day was absolutely perfect.

The next Saturday, we met in Chattanooga, and spent hours talking, walking around the city, and eating. When he finally kissed me at the end of the night, I knew I was done for. The next morning, I called my mom and said, “I think if he’s the boy I get to marry, I don’t even care that I had to wait until I was 29 to meet him.”

Over the past year, I have fallen head over heels in love with Justin as I have gotten to know him. He is kind, fun, and giving. He loves Jesus and serves the people around him so well. He makes me laugh and is so much fun to be around. He is a worthy competitor in board games and beats me more times than I'd like to admit. It didn't take me long to know that he was the person that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, I just had to wait for him to ask.

THE WHY (from Justin)

There are so many reason to love Carrie, her graciousness, her kindness to others, her love for her family and friends, her love for Jesus, her competitiveness, her smile, her ability to make me smile each night when I see her on FaceTime, her love of letter writing, but most importantly is the way I feel each time I get to see her on Friday afternoons.

Getting to know Carrie and her family and friends over the last year has been such a wonderful experience. Carrie has such a wonderful way with people and it’s something that I truly admire about her.

In late October, Carrie presented me with a box of letters for November, one for each day of the month. Each morning, I would wake up and Marco Polo her and wish her a good day and then read my letter for the day. Some were about memories we had made together, others were about things she loved about me, and others were about what she hoped for.

With each day and letter that I read that month, I realized she was the most special person I had ever met. And even though our relationship was still fairly new, I knew we were meant to be and my love for her was becoming real and tangible.

Over the course of the next couple months, we were able to spend some extended time together and it was clear to me that Carrie was it...she was who my heart had chosen and I was smitten. I love her and spending our lives together sounds like the best idea I ever had.

THE PLAN January - May 2020

My plan was to propose at Centennial Park in Nashville… on August 6. The first time I came to Nashville to spend time with Carrie, we walked around Centennial Park talking about our faith, families, career goals, what we loved and didn’t, and got to know each other better after several weeks of texting and talking on the phone. This place already had special meaning to us since it was our very first date, and so I knew that’s where I wanted to propose.

I planned everything out for the end of the summer on August 6th, 2021. I felt like summer would be a stressful time for both of us. Carrie was working with FUGE camps and locations were coming back after a year off. Mission Serve was also having projects for the first time since 2019, and I was coordinating my first Mission Serve project in Knoxville, plus working my day job at Knox County Schools. Additionally, we were still trying our hardest to see each other as much as possible on weekends. Knowing all of this, I knew the summer would be a busy, stressful time, and I wanted us to enjoy our engagement. I started actively working on the August 6th plan, and I let Carrie know that I had a plan and was taking care of the details.

As Carrie and I talked more and more about our future together, we decided to get married in 2021. We started looking at venues and dates, but there was one problem… Each time Carrie met with someone about the wedding, their first question was always, “when did you get engaged?” As this happened more and more, I could tell my August plan was not going to work.

By the end of April, I decided I needed to move up my timeline, but there were a few issues. Nothing was ready! No ring, no photographers, no one else knew, no blessing from her family...nothing. I didn’t even know if the day I had in mind would work for anyone.

I started texting everybody involved...my family, her family, her best friend Katie, our photographers, Haley and Harrison.

After several back and forth conversations, things seemed to be coming together, but I knew if one thing didn’t line up, I would have to scrap the whole thing and start again.

Luckily, our families and friends are the best!! Everyone cleared their schedules, I was able to get to Jackson, Mississippi to speak with Dr. Dodson, Christopher and Rachel were wonderful hosts while I hid out in Birmingham for a couple of days, and I was able to get the ring in about a week. While Haley wasn’t able to be there because she had to travel for work, her wonderful husband Harrison filled in and did an incredible job.

THE DAY! May 31, 2020

Carrie knew it was coming...in all my planning I had forgotten to come up with a good excuse for why I couldn’t be in Nashville on Memorial Day. I had graduations starting the next day in Knoxville, so I used that but she did not buy it and was getting suspicious. I was staying at Christopher and Rachel’s house in Birmingham, so I had to be sneaky about my location when we FaceTimed each night.

Memorial Day arrived and I drove up to Nashville and met Mom and Dad. I had turned off my location a week earlier so Carrie couldn’t track me...she is sneaky and doesn’t miss much!

Each Monday night, Carrie, her mom, and a group of friends go out to eat together. Memorial Day would be the last time they were all together before summer got crazy, so her mom suggested they “get dressed up and do something nice” that night. As usual, they met in the Target parking lot and all rode together to “dinner”. Carrie was definitely suspicious at this point, and spent most of the day going back and forth about whether or not this was actually happening.

I met Harrison, and we scouted a location and waited for the girls to drop Carrie off at Centennial Park. Since our first date, this was the longest Carrie and I had gone without seeing each other (10 days!), so I couldn’t wait to finally see her in person, especially knowing what I was about to ask.

We walked around the same pond we walked around that first day in Nashville...just talking and catching up. I was nervously excited, and I think she was thinking, “hey man, are you gonna do this thing, or are we going to walk around this pond all night?”

I led her back to the spot I had picked out and read her a letter. I talked about the memories of our first few dates, the times we had spent since then that were meaningful to me, and what I hope our life will be together. Carrie loves writing and receiving letters, so I think this was a good move on my part.

After all the planning, travel, and time apart, I dropped to one knee and asked the most important question a man can ask of a woman, “Will you marry me?”

She graciously said, “YES!”

And so here we are, engaged and making wedding plans, booking venues and caterers, and still doing our best to see each other every weekend.

We are so excited and we are looking forward to celebrating with each of you on December 5 in Nashville.