John and Gabby are middle school sweethearts. They first started talking after John reached out through Instagram because he was too shy to reach out in person and Gabby didn’t have Snapchat. John even convinced Gabby’s best friend Olivia to find out who she liked. He did this by bribing her with naming rights to one of the ducks on his family acreage. Olivia named the duck Gubby.

Fast forward to high school, John and Gabby both enjoyed supporting each other at their activities. John and Gabby both played soccer and even played the same position of goalkeeper. In school, Gabby was part of the business program that ran the school’s coffee shop. You could almost always find John hanging out near the coffee shop when Gabby had to work. He would even join in the business class when there was free time. Over the summer, Gabby would join John at the county fair to support his FFA projects and help him care for the animals he was showing.

In college, John and Gabby did long distance. John started at Ellsworth Community College for 2 years and then went to South Dakota State University for 2 1/2 years to get his degree in Precision Agriculture. Gabby went to Grand View University to play soccer and study Nursing. You could find Gabby and John on FaceTime together almost every night.

John proposed to Gabby the week before he had to go back to SDSU for his final semester. He proposed by taking Gabby to the park across the street from her Grandma’s house where her family had taken pictures in the past. His mom was in on it by saying that she wanted family pictures, so that was how John got Gabby to dress up and go to the park without being suspicious. Gabby’s sisters were hiding across the street, Natalie hiding on their grandma’s deck to record and Aspen hiding in a bush to take pictures. John ended up stopping in the wrong spot, so Aspen had to run out of the bush to get pictures. Gabby turned around just in time to see Aspen stumbling out of the bush covered in dirt. Another surprise that John planned was to have their families and close friends gathered at the brewery in town to celebrate.

Now, John and Gabby live in West Des Moines in an apartment together. John works for a company called Synagro, distributing lime to farmers in the Des Moines area. Gabby works at Methodist West as a labor and delivery nurse. They are enjoying their time being engaged and planning their wedding.