Hello, Channing here! I just have the biggest smile on my face about getting to share with y’all how Chase and I came to be! In January of 2021, we both were in town attending an engagement party for our friends Zac and Maegan Swearingen (shout out to the two that helped this whole story unfold!) Chase and I both were there enjoying the party, me with my friends and Chase with his. As the night continued, Chase and I would steal glances at each other often. The party ended with no spoken words between the two of us, however, Chase did have a brief conversation with my parents consisting of the normal "how have you been?" "hope all is well!" I went home that night thinking to myself, Chase Ritter is SUPER cute, so of course I had to tell someone! The next morning I texted Maegan to tell her how much fun the party was the night before and "casually" mentioned to her how cute I thought Chase was. Her response to me was “he still needs a date to our wedding!” And that was pretty much the end of that conversation! Little did I know her and Zac were with Chase at the time of our conversation and told him about my crush, of course! Well, believe it or not, Chase is not always the most forward person, so his game plan was to wait and see me at their upcoming wedding and maybe we could make a connection there. Keep in mind their wedding was still a couple months away! I (Channing) being the most impatient person that there is, decided to message him on instagram a few days later… yep, I did it. Right after I sent the message I turned my phone off for two hours because I was so nervous for his response. It was a Thursday, and Chase was at work when he got the message, keep in mind I did not tell anyone I was going to message him, except for my sister, Cassidy, and my friend Caroline, so he was very shocked (so he says) when the message came across his phone. When I finally turned my phone on two hours later, I see I have a new message on instagram! :) I opened up the message to see that Chase was asking me out to dinner the following night! Okay, now I’m smiling even bigger than I was at the beginning of this story! We talk and make plans and it was set, January 29th 2021 @ 6:00 p.m. would be our first date, and boy was it a good one! Chase drove to Birmingham where I was living at the time. He was living in North Alabama outside of Guntersville, so he had about an hour and half drive after work to come see me. Shockingly he made it on time (a little inside joke because Chase is NEVER on time for anything!) We ate dinner at The Essential in downtown Birmingham and talked about everything. The conversation never stopped and there was never a time that I wasn’t grinning from ear to ear (are you catching on that I was crushing on him hard?) After dinner, we didn’t have plans but Chase said he wasn't ready to take me home yet, so he asked me to go get a drink with him at a bar. After drinks and great conversation, it was getting late so Chase dropped me off at my house and headed back to his house in North Alabama. From that first night I knew this was going to be something special. We have been inseparable ever since, and the time we've had together makes us wonder what we ever did before we met each other. Fast forward a year later, Chase got down on one knee and asked me to marry him on January 29th 2022 (exactly one year after our first date) in the most beautiful place on earth! p.s. go look at our pics! To sum it all up we will be getting married on January 28th 2023 exactly two years since he asked me to go on our first date. Can you tell we love the month of January? Chase is the biggest blessing I have ever received. He shows me a love I never knew existed here on earth. A kind of love I pray everyone gets to experience. He leads me closer to Jesus. He’s honest and true. He’s my person and always will be! We cannot wait to celebrate our marriage with all of our family and friends!