Cori and I’s meeting story is definitely not the most traditional “love story” to say the least. The stars didn’t exactly align like something you see out of the movies. But nonetheless, it is for sure one that is unique ,unforgettable, and one that I’m so happy we can laugh about today.

It all started in February of 2017 at an annual fraternity party hosted by ATO called “Tour De Franzia.” The party was a play on words for the “Tour De France” but with bagged Franzia wine. I remember the party preparation vividly due to the whole campus losing power for hours leading up to the party. We scrambled around trying to figure out if we should cancel the party or not and ultimately decided the show must go on. As box after box of bagged wine started to make their way upstairs of the fraternity house, so did the guests.

Each room was assigned about 2-4 boxes of wine, an amount that I’m sure a lot of y’all can understand was a recipe for many college students to potentially be over-served. The party went off without a hitch and everyone was having a great time. Typically our parties had an open door policy in each of the fraternity house rooms. This meant you would often find yourself floating from room to room, meeting new people and creating new conversations.

With a bag of red wine in my hand I made my way to a new room of the house I had not previously been in that night yet. I found myself creating conversation with a group of girls I had never met. I remember not being able to keep my eyes off of this one girl with blonde hair and the most beautiful blue eyes I’d ever seen in my life… It was Cori.

Of course, I kept my attention on her. But I can’t say the attention was reciprocated whatsoever. With me trying to probably crack some stupid joke at the time, she probably had good reason not to give me much attention. Cori and her friends asked me for a refill of their beverages and at the time there was a really stupid/obnoxious way of consuming the bagged wine. It was called “Slapping the bag.” It was a method where you pretty much chug straight from the bag while somebody slaps it making the wine come out faster. Again, a very obnoxious way of drinking wine but it was a popular trend at the time with college kids. Everyone thought it was hilarious. One by one everyone in the room “slapped the bag” and Cori was the last one up. She’s never been a big wine drinker but with a little peer pressure from her friends she did it. This is where it started going south. I remember Cori wearing this beautiful white shirt and that doesn't usually mix too well with red wine. Long story short I completely ruined her shirt by accident, spilling red wine all over it. That didn’t really help my case in getting any positive attention from her.

Fast forward to the fall of 2017- Ole Miss was playing Alabama in Tuscaloosa. My parents had rented a house with another family whose daughter went to Bama. The night before the big game we ended up having a little get together at the rental house. Wouldn’t you know it, this blonde haired, blue eye girl comes walking in with our family friend and a group of girls. Immediately I recognized her, but I just couldn’t remember where from. I proceeded to walk up to her and tell her that I knew her from somewhere, and she immediately said “we definitely don’t know each other.” I swore to her we had met in the past and she kinda gave me the cold shoulder. The night proceeded to go on, and little did I know, there was a video of me spilling the wine all over her shirt at that party months prior. The group of girls went to dinner with all the parents and I went to another party with my guys (but couldn’t stop thinking about her). I guess my dad really gets the gold star of the story. He sat across from Cori at dinner and told her that she and I should “go out for coffee sometime.” She may have been a bit freaked out at the time, but my dad ended up being the best wing man I could have asked for.

I ended up bumping into Cori that next day at the tailgate and that’s when she finally showed me the video from the “Tour de Franzia” party and said “so I guess we do know each other, you’re this asshole.” Of course I laughed and said yes that’s me.

The weekend came to an end and I never got her number. However, we both followed each other on Instagram that Sunday morning. I ended up direct messaging her and told her that my dad said I should take her to get coffee. She promptly responded, “sorry I don’t like coffee.” She was playing pretty hard to get that weekend. I ended up asking her to go to a country concert with me, she eventually agreed, and the rest is history.

Again, not that most traditional love story but we both laugh about it every time we tell it. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Cori is such a unique woman. She’s simple yet elegant, gentle yet tough, kind yet stern when she needs to be. She has all the qualities a man looks for in a strong life partner. I wanted to make her proposal one that a woman like her would never forget.

I remember the day I told my mom I was going to marry this girl. As most of y’all can imagine, Pam Shepherd was absolutely through the roof thrilled to finally have a daughter. Little did Cori know, that conversation with my mom happened a whole year prior to the actual proposal. With almost 5 years under our belt of dating, I think Cori was more than ready for a proposal! I was as well, but in all honesty, I could not for the life of me figure out how, where, or when. I always knew I wanted that day to be so special for her. So the brainstorming started…

I let my family and friends know a “rough draft” idea of a Charleston proposal. However, I began thinking that it may end up being more difficult to pull off logistically. Cori had always told me that when the time comes, her one requirement wasn’t a photographer, it wasn’t big light up letters spelling out “Marry Me?”, or something that was super extravagant and expensive. Her one requirement was that her mother and sister had to be there. The love this girl has for her family is absolutely incredible. I called Ms Beth in December of 2022 to ask for her daughter's hand in marriage. I would have loved to ask her in person, but with them living up in Indiana, a phone call was going to have to suffice. And DAMN was I nervous lol. With Ms Beth’s blessing, I made it very evident that she and Taylor HAD to be there.

After scouring online and on social media, I was still stuck on when and where I was going to propose. I remember Cori showing me a video on Tiktok of a beautiful waterfall in north Georgia and saying “this would be such a cool place to have a wedding”. At the time I didn’t really think anything of it. After a while, I kept rewatching that video and thought to myself “what a cool place it would be to propose”.

So, I was set on the location. The next questions to answer were the how and when. As y’all can imagine, it was a little nerve racking having a diamond ring in my pocket and still trying to figure out the best way to make the proposal perfect. I came up with the plan to propose on my birthday, February 24th. Now, the reasoning behind doing it on my birthday is because my lady is a detective when it comes to surprises. I planned on having our friends from college come into town to “celebrate my birthday.” Little did Cori know, we were not celebrating my birthday at all. Our friends Cole and Natalie Crosby were in on it the whole time and helped out with the planning. Toccoa Falls, Feb 24th at noon.

The weekend of the proposal finally came and Cole and Natalie were arriving on Friday night. Little Miss Detective started asking questions like why her family's location was turned off on their iPhones. I couldn’t help but just sit back and laugh. There wasn’t a whole lot of sleep that night before I popped the question, but the morning finally came.

The cover up for the day was that we were heading up to do some wine tasting in north Georgia for my birthday. Cori isn’t much of a wine girl so I made sure to pack her a cooler of white claws. It was about a 2 hour drive to Toccoa and I was just trying to keep myself calm the whole ride. We finally arrived at Toccoa college where the falls were. This is when I think she started to really figure out something was up. Behind the scenes, my family and hers were already there hiding. We got out of the car and she immediately grabbed her make up bag and went to the bathroom with Natalie. After her 2 min touch up that seemed like hours to me, I grabbed her hand and started toward the falls. The whole day we were worried about rain but as soon as we got closer to the falls, the sky had completely cleared. As we got closer to the falls I slowed down a bit to let the families sneak up behind us. We stopped (I made sure she was on her “good side”) I grabbed both of her hands, of course saying a couple cheesy phrases of mine at first, then got down on a knee and asked my best friend to spend the rest of her life with me. The look on this girl's face is one that I will never forget as long as I live. She said yes! We both turned back around and saw our families cheering, clapping, and crying and proceeded to embrace everyone in hugs. Easily the best day of my life.

Cori- I hope you know I tried to form this proposal around everything that reminds me of you. Natural, beautiful, simple, yet elegant. I love you with all my heart!