His Version:

Our story begins on December 10th, 2022. That was the first time that I saw Gabbi. I was out with some of my friends from college at the bar that plays a big role for us down the line as well, Shotgun Betty’s. Word on the street is that I was there with another girl… I will neither confirm nor deny that claim. Gabbi and Jesse were doing a little matchmaking that night with the single friends in each group. One happened to be my brother and the other one of her college friends. Gabbi ended up getting a video of them dancing which I knew I had to have. That was our first conversation. We exchanged contact information and that was about the end of that night. We had a couple more drinks and called it a night. Our stories differ slightly at this point. I don’t recall ever getting the video of them dancing until our next encounter.

About 2 months go by of me probably going to the bar a few more weekends and living life until February 3rd, 2023. One more time at our go to place, Shotgun Betty’s. I had gone out with some friends from Winterset this time around and we stopped at Betty’s to end the night. I always see a few people from other towns around the area that I know from high school so I started talking to one of them, Gage Fuller, from Adel. Eventually Gabbi joined the circle as she was out at Betty’s again with a group of Central friends that included Gage. From that point on, we haven’t gone a day without talking. My friends hung around for a little while before letting me know they were going to leave. That meant that my ride was gone and the walk home in February isn’t ideal. Gabbi thought that I stayed just to hang out with our mutual friends but that definitely wasn’t my intention. She was pretty obviously different from all of the other girls in Shotgun Betty’s. If you’ve ever been you know what I mean. We spent the rest of the night belting out Chicken Fried, American Soldier, Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue, and God Bless the USA. All of which, the only people in our group that seemed to know them was Gabbi and I. Another area of our stories that clash is how our contact information was exchanged… again. Gabbi was a go getter and said to me “are you not going to ask for my number” while still deep in the crowd at the bar. To this day she claims that I never would have asked for her number. I disagree. However, we did get each other’s numbers and then I finally got the video of my brother I so unfortunately didn’t receive the first time around. Gabbi was of course the sober one of the group and offered to give me a ride to my apartment so I didn’t have to walk 10 minutes in freezing temps. I texted her the following morning and it didn’t take long before my sister caught my notifications with both a text and snapchat from Gabbi. 2 simultaneous forms of communication meant it had to be serious of course.

We didn’t talk for more than a week before we started to set up a time to get together again. If you want to know a more precise timeline of our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd dates then I would suggest reading Gabbi’s version as I am sure she knows better than I do. Date number one was a good one for sure. After I got off work I went straight to Gabbi’s to pick her up and go to Nordstrom Rack in West Des Moines so that she could help me buy a couple of pairs of shoes for work. After that we had planned to go out to eat. I knew that Gabbi had a list of places she had been recommended to try since moving to the area. So, we decided to check Firebirds off the list. We had a great time and if you know either of us, you would be right in assuming that Gabbi did most of the talking during that first date. After dinner, Gabbi lied to me that she hadn’t seen some areas of Waukee since moving so we could drive around some more. That drive was a pretty big point in the early stages of our relationship. For being a first date we were able to learn a lot about each other, how we grew up, and what was important to us. After that night, I knew I had to see her again so we quickly set up another time to see each other.

Date 2 was a few days later beginning at 5 Borough Bagels for a late breakfast and then a walk around Gray’s Lake. That walk was a great continuation of our drive from date 1. It really allowed us to have different conversations than we were having through text/snapchat. We finished this day watching a movie back at my apartment and then I took her back to hers. I believe after this date I knew that this wasn’t going to be a relationship I should mess up. We both had this urge to hang out again and again and get to know each other better. We had learned a ton of things already about our values and families. It seemed like we were a perfect match based off of those first couple of dates. A little foreshadowing for you, we were.

Naturally, date 3 was on Valentine's day. We didn’t necessarily do this on purpose. It just happened to be the only day that worked for both of us and we didn’t want to go a week without seeing each other at this point. Ice cream and another long drive was the perfect night for us to dive even deeper.

Date 4, we watched “A Quiet Place” at Gabbi’s apartment.

Date 5… February 20th, another movie date but ended up being a lot more. This is the day that Gabbi and I officially became official. A ton of awesome things have happened since that day but I won't bore you with all of those stories. Here is a highlight of some of the big days:

Meeting each other's families in a crash course weekend. Eating Pizza at Giordano’s with my family followed by a day at State Archery to watch Elijah and a trip to Spare Time to play games and laser tag. Emery had a great joke to tell me that day as well. She might remember if you ask her.

Thomas Rhett concert at Wells Fargo with Caden, Jaya, and Cade. He is definitely our most played artist on our car rides.

Tulip Time - another great weekend including our families being together for the first time and saying I love you for the first time:)

6 month date - we had an amazing date with the day planned by Gabbi and the night planned by me. Ask us how that date went if you would like.

A summer full of weddings gave us tons of time together to think about how we wanted our wedding to go. Yeah, we had a pretty good idea early on that we were going to marry each other.

A lot of movie dates, church dates, and building a ton of great relationships with our church family.

Then we made it to December. I had begun looking for rings around Thanksgiving with the help of my amazing mom. Of course Gabbi had made it very apparent what kind of ring she wanted by dropping hints and sending me pictures. I was ready to buy that ring whenever I could get some time set up to talk to Alan. We finally got that set up so I got the order put in for the ring as I was on quite the time crunch to pull the plan I had in mind off. Alan and I met at Glen Oaks for dinner and had a great conversation about work, sports, life, and of course if he and the family would allow me to ask Gabbi to marry me. After that I quickly worked with the amazing help of my mom to set up the proposal at Glen Oaks. We had a “family dinner” planned for that night so it was easy to get Gabbi to Glen Oaks looking all cute;) I walked her in the side door and into a dark bar where mom had set up lights and candles on the patio. Thankfully Gabbi said yes and then both of our families came out from behind a sliding door to give big hugs, especially Elijah. We didn’t end up actually having that dinner but told Gabbi again that we were actually having dinner together at my parents house in Winterset. On the way Gabbi started to get a little suspicious of what was going on. We walked into a ton of our closest friends and family. It was amazing to see all of those people that mean so much to us show up and celebrate our day. We made it through the Holidays with amazing time with extended family and began our time crunch to plan the wedding of our dreams.

This past year has been nothing short of amazing! God has blessed me immensely with Gabbi and He has made it so obvious that she is the one for me. I cannot wait to continue to build a life and family with Gabbi. To be continued…

Her Version:

When it came to dating I had been picky when it came to guys all throughout high school and college. I had very high standards. If you were to ask any of my friends about it, they would chuckle and refer to a list that my college roommate would keep on her phone that consisted of the qualities I had mentioned over the course of college of the qualities I was looking for in a guy. My junior and senior year, I was super content in my singleness. After college, I was learning how to become more independent and start a life for myself. I wanted to focus on making new friendships in West Des Moines. On December 10, 2022, I was out with some friends from college. We went to a country bar in West Des Moines called Shotgun Betty’s. About ten minutes after we got there, we were approached by a group of guys who were from Northwestern. We started talking about how we were both from Dutch colleges. We hung out with them for the majority of the night. Casey was one of the guys, but we barely talked that night because he was there with another girl. I thought he was cute, but I also thought he was with his girlfriend so I didn’t really talk to him. He also seemed pretty occupied with the girl, so he didn’t really talk to me either. Later on in the night one of the Northwestern guys and I started playing matchmaker with his group of friends and mine. (Ironically neither one of us thought to match me and Casey, but we will get to that later). We somehow convinced Casey’s older brother, Jalen, to slow dance with my roommate’s sister. I took a video of it, and afterwards Casey came up to me saying, “I HAVE to have that video. He never dances with anyone.” I tried sending it to him on Snapchat, but it wouldn’t load, so I asked for his number and sent it to him. And that was it. We left the bar. I didn’t hear anything from Casey or the group of guys.

Until two months later. February 3, 2023, to be exact. In January I started to feel a little discontent in my singleness. So on February 2nd, I felt convicted to just give it to God. I remember praying to God to open and close doors when it comes to dating. I was tired of all of the games and drama that came with dating. I was looking for something serious. Throughout my junior and senior year, I had told myself that the next guy I was going to date, I was probably going to marry. I was that serious when it came to dating. The very next day after I prayed that prayer, I met up with some friends I hadn’t seen for awhile from college. We went out to dinner, and then ended up back at Shotgun Betty’s because we knew some people who were going to be there. Almost immediately after getting there, one of my friends started talking to this guy while we were in line to get a drink. I looked more closely and it was the guy who was a part of the group from December, and he didn’t have a girl with him this time. He also looked a lot like Kayce Dutton from Yellowstone (he still had his long hair at the time). Which I had been binge watching the last week or so and was definitely crushing on Kayce. I approached him and said, “Hey, I think your brother danced with my friend.” He immediately recognized me and I asked for his name. “Casey.” …so he looks like Kayce Dutton AND his name is the same! If this wasn’t an open door from the Lord then I don’t know what was. I then asked, “Has anyone ever told you that you look like Kayce Dutton from Yellowstone?” “Yea I’ve gotten that a few times,” he chuckles. We then start the typical get to know you conversation. He told me where he worked and what he does- finance at Sammons. I tell him I need help with finances and that my New Year's Resolution is to become more financially literate. We talked about where we both were from and where we lived now. He also cleared up how he doesn’t have a girlfriend and the girl he was with was just someone from college. After awhile, his buddies that he was with tell him that they were leaving. Casey says goodbye, and stays with us. I asked how he was going to get home and he said he would just walk. But it’s February and it’s freezing, so I offer to drive him home since I was DD’ing for my friends anyways. We then made our way to the front of the bar where “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue” was playing. I was sad to see that none of my friends knew it since this is one of my favorite country songs to belt. I then looked at Casey and he knew it so we sang it together - another open door. As we started leaving the bar, I was a little disappointed that he hadn’t asked for my number yet. So, I teased him and said, “Are you going to ask for my number or not?” I’m usually never this bold so I don’t know what came over me. But studies do show that relationships are more likely to be successful if the girl initiates it :) We exchanged numbers and I drove him home.

When I got home, I received a text from Casey asking if I got home safe. That night, I decided to take a picture of what I was wearing because something inside of me felt like this might turn into something good, and I wanted to remember what I wore when I met Casey. The next morning, I woke up to a text AND a Snapchat from Casey. So this boy must really like me if he messaged me on two different platforms. That day I remember feeling so giddy. I had a lot to do that day, but I did not get much done because I could not focus on anything other than this cute boy who was messaging me. I remember telling my roommate at the time that this was the cutest boy I had ever talked to.

On February 9th, we went on our first date. I was so impressed with how much thought he had put into this date and how we didn’t waste much time in the “talking” through text phase. I loved how he was so intentional and was not here to play games. HUGE green flag. When I moved to the West Des Moines area, I had created a list of all of the restaurants I wanted to try. He had remembered me mentioning this list and took me to one of the restaurants on the list- Firebirds. He picked me up and my heart was THUMPING as I got into the car, but as soon as we started talking, I immediately felt at ease. There was no awkwardness at all. It didn’t take long to realize that we had a lot in common- same beliefs, morals, and values. After dinner, he drove me home, but I wanted the date to last a little longer. So, I may have fibbed and told him that I had never been to the Waukee Triangle before (even though I had). He drove me around the town, which led to driving around gravel roads and some more conversations.

On February 11th, I asked him out to a brunch date. We went to 5 Borough Bagels. It was a surprisingly nice day in February so afterwards, we decided to take a walk around Gray’s Lake. The whole time, I remember “accidentally” brushing his hand with mine, but he sadly never got the hint. Afterwards, he invited me over to his apartment to watch the second Black Panther movie since we discovered that we both liked Marvel movies.

Our third date was on Valentine’s Day. We went and got ice cream at Home Sweet Cone (which is now going to be a tradition every Valentine’s Day according to Casey). Afterwards, we just drove around for a long time. We had some really deep talks like what we wanted our lives to look like, what our goals in life were, etc. It was crazy how we aligned almost perfectly on every single thing. It was at this point where it started to become pretty obvious that he could be the one for me.

February 20th, he officially asked me to be his girlfriend. We had gotten ice cream from a gas station by his apartment. He put on one of his favorite movies-Interstellar, while we ate the ice cream. To be honest, it was not my favorite movie, and I fell asleep multiple times while watching it. After the movie was over, we were just lying there and talking when he leaned over and asked me to be his girlfriend. I easily said yes and the rest is history :)

Some other key points in our relationship:

Meeting each other’s families- After meeting his family, I immediately fell in love with them. I felt at home with them and they were so welcoming. I just remember walking into his house and hearing worship music in the background, and immediately knew that I was going to love his family. The next day, we went to my brother’s state archery tournament to meet my family. Casey fit in so well with my family. My brother, Elijah, immediately approved of him. They soon became best friends on Snapchat :)

Spring Break- in March, I remember walking on a beach with my mom on our family vacation in Florida. I vividly remember her telling me that she thought Casey could be the one for me (after only meeting him once and we had been dating for less than a month). Momma knows best I guess.

The entire month of April I wanted to tell Casey that I loved him, but I was too nervous to say it first. I told myself that if he didn’t say it by the Thomas Rhett concert on May 4th, that I would tell him there. May 4th came and we went to the concert, but he still had not told me. When Thomas Rhett started singing Die a Happy Man, I remember wanting to tell him that I loved him so badly, but it was too loud to hear anything so I decided not to. However, during the song, Casey grabbed my hand and I just remember being swept away with such an immense feeling of love in that moment. Although neither of us verbally said “I love you” in that moment, we both could tell what each other was thinking in that moment.

The next day, May 5th, both of our families met each other for the first time at Tulip Time in Pella. Everyone got along so well and it was so fun swapping stories and showing them around my college town. That night, after our families left, Casey beat me to it and told me he loved me.

After many dates, lots of laughs, and countless memories, Casey proposed to me on our 10 month anniversary- December 20th, 2024. We were supposed to be going out to a Christmas dinner with his family. On my way back from school that day, I had a tiny suspicion that he could be proposing that day especially after I saw my mom had turned off her location. But I also was playing devil's advocate and convinced myself that he wasn’t going to because it was too early. What especially convinced me that he wasn’t going to propose that day was when he came to pick me up, he was so chill and did not act suspicious at all. I had asked him if he thought my outfit was okay and he said, “I don’t care.” After that comment I completely convinced myself he was not proposing, since he probably would care at least a little bit about what I was wearing if he was going to propose. We get to Glen Oaks and he leads me into this dark empty room. At first I was confused and was wondering where everyone was, until I saw the hanging lights and candles on the ground. Casey leads me out onto the outdoor balcony and gets down on one knee. I was in complete shock and awe the entire time. This was the moment I had dreamed about my entire life, and it was happening right before my eyes. It was the easiest “yes” I had ever given. My entire family and his family were hiding behind a sliding door and burst out to celebrate with us. It was the most perfect moment. We then went to his house where he surprised me again with all of our family, church, and college friends there to celebrate our engagement. I have never felt more loved in my entire life. Loved by my amazing fiancé. Loved by my family. And loved by all of our friends who were there waiting to celebrate with us.

I cannot wait to continue this story with the love of my life. Now onto the next chapter: marriage!!

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