Our story starts in 2020—freshman year of college, in the middle of peak COVID chaos. I had just finished moving into my dorm and was totally wiped when my roommate, David, got a message in a freshman group chat. A few people were looking for a ride to a first week get-together. David asked if I wanted to come, and I said, “Nah, I’m good.”.

So, off he went—and completely by chance, ended up meeting our other roommate, Jack, along with a group of people who would go on to become some of our close friends.

A few days later, David invited me to lunch with that same group. I went, and that’s when I officially met Sophie—she was one of the people David picked up for a car ride. Campus life during COVID wasn’t exactly lively: no big events, no parties, lots of Zoom fatigue. So, we made our own fun—card games, scary movie nights, and wildly competitive Mario Kart tournaments. Sophie was suspiciously good at Rummy. We’re still convinced she was counting cards. On the flip side, I would always beat her in Mario Kart.

Now for those who don't know, Sophie was a collegiate golfer at UWF. Dedicated, focused, crazy talented. Meanwhile, my experience with golf was limited to a few high school Topgolf visits where my goal was just to hit the ball really hard and make it to the back net. Now most guys pick up golf in college to have fun and chill with friends. I picked it up to try and impress a girl—a girl who happened to play at a collegiate level and not to mention the hardest sport to be good at.

In Spring 2021, we road-tripped to Naples, Florida, with a few of our friends to stay with her family. Somewhere between a 10-hour drive, meeting her parents, and being introduced to her hometown crew, I worked up the courage to ask her to be my girlfriend. To my shock and delight—she said yes. (Huge win.)

That summer, one of my best friends Caleb got me a job at a golf course in Jacksonville. And let’s be honest—it was less about career-building and more about the free practice I got to try and not embarrass myself when I played golf with Sophie. Her sister happened to live nearby, so we got to see each other whenever she visited and during one of those visits, we had our first “real” date at the MOSH in Jacksonville—and yes, I still carry the ticket in my wallet.

Not long after, Sophie’s parents moved to Jacksonville too, and from there, everything just kind of fell into place.

Fast-forward a bit to September 12, 2024—we bought our first home together. Then came two amazing dogs, way too many dog toys, and a surprise snowstorm on Sophie’s birthday. In Florida. Like, 9-inches-of-snow snowstorm. And then came the proposal a couple of months later.

Originally, I had big plans for May 10, 2025. Sunrise, surprise celebration, all our friends and family—perfect, right? Well, Florida had other ideas: a full week of storms forced me to move everything up. So, I pivoted. On May 4th, with the help of our amazing friends, we organized a last-minute beach picnic proposal.

Getting Sophie to go was... tricky. She wanted to stay home and chill with the dogs. But after some suspiciously convincing “let's go do something fun” speeches and a little bit of begging, I finally got her to agree. According to her, I was acting super weird and quiet the whole ride. I thought I was playing it cool—turns out, I was just being obvious.

Once we got to the beach, our friends were already there setting up a picnic. My “big moment” strategy to get into place? I asked her to stand up and jump around so I could take funny pictures. When that failed, I walked her down to the water, pointed out the sunset reflecting off some buildings (??), and then—finally—dropped to one knee and asked her to be my best friend for life.

SHE SAID YES! Despite my awkwardness. Despite the weird building comment. Despite all of it.

We kept it to ourselves for that week, just to enjoy the moment together before letting the world in. It turned out to be one of the sweetest weeks ever—filled with quiet happiness, lots of daydreaming, and Sophie doing her absolute best not to spill the news every time someone called.

That weekend, the real fun began—we pulled off a surprise engagement party with all our closest friends and family. With a little teamwork and some "well-planned distractions", we got Sophie out of the house from Friday night through Saturday morning. When we came back, everyone was there waiting to surprise Sophie. She was completely stunned. Her face said everything—pure joy, happy tears, and a whole lot of, “Wait… how did EVAN pull this off?!”

And now, here we are—counting down the days until February 28, 2026. The day we finally get to say, “I do” and start the next chapter of this already amazing adventure together. We’re so excited, so grateful, and truly can’t wait to celebrate with all of you!

E&S

Wedding Day

Reception