Their story starts at a playoff St. Louis Blues hockey game in 2022. Dylan was with his friends in the very last row of the Enterprise Center. Darcee was sitting in the row in front of them with her sister (Andrea), her fiancé (Tyler) and his brother. If you ask either one of them… you will hear a different version of who got caught looking at the other one first. What they will agree on is how they instantly both felt drawn to each other in some way. Throughout the game, they both made eye contact with each other numerous times. By the end of the game, Darcee chalked it up that she would never get to talk to the guy in the back row. While Dylan had other plans… he told his buddy next to him that he was not leaving the game until he talked to Darcee and got her number. He finally built up the liquid courage to do just that as the game was over, and Darcee walked past him. He asked for Darcee’s number, and she responded “yeah” in shock. One thing Darcee failed to do was tell Dylan her name as she entered her contact information into his phone. This left Dylan frantically scrolling through his entire contact list searching for a name he did not recognize. Luckily, he finally found it, and that night Dylan immediately sent a cheesy text to Darcee that continued to fuel this spark. Throughout the conversation that night, they found so many funny connections (one being both our brothers are named Dalton and know each other from playing football together in college) and they had an undeniable chemistry between each other.

About a month later, they finally had their first date to a Cardinals game, where Dylan beat Darcee at Beer Pong over at Ball Park Village… (he has yet to play her one on one since). Shortly after that, Dylan finally moved down to St. Louis, and from that point on, they were basically inseparable. Dylan’s dog, Hoosier, quickly became a big part of Darcee’s life too. In the time since they have been together, they have gotten to take many trips together, including visiting Branson, Washington DC, and Fort Walton Beach. They have experienced many sporting events together (and watch a lot of games together as that is all that is ever on the tv…) and attended several country concerts together too.

The most memorable trip occurred in early December of 2023. Darcee and Dylan wanted to take another trip down to Branson around Christmas time with both of their families. The reason behind this trip was because early in their relationship, they had discovered that both families had experienced several family trips down there. Darcee thought it was a just a normal family trip, as her family had been wanting to go during Christmas for quite some time. Once again, Dylan had other plans. On that Friday night while everyone was walking around the Branson Landing, Dylan had planned to propose. Dylan used his father, Darin’s, persistent request of taking pictures to lure everyone down towards the fountains for some family pictures. In typical fashion, Dylan’s mom, Debbie, was yelling at Darin to figure out what was going on to distract the group. As we were walking down the stairs, Dylan spotted Darcee’s brother (Dalton) and sister-in-law (Stacy), (who was arriving for the trip a day early to further surprise Darcee) and knew it was go time. Dylan grabbed Darcee’s hand and made a beeline to where he would ask her to marry him in front of the fountain.

Dylan, Darcee, Hoosier, and Dutton are so happy to have been supported with so much love from both families. They could not be more excited to be celebrating such an amazing journey together with both families and all the friends that they have had so much support from throughout their lives. They cannot wait to continue to grow as a couple for the rest of their lives and are so thankful for everyone who has been a part of helping shape them into the individuals they are today.