Once upon a time, in a far away land -

Actually, about two and a half years ago (Late April 2021) in a Tractor Supply, Josh was promoted to Assistant Store Manager, which landed him a transfer from the Murray store to the Benton store. He had no idea what was waiting for him.

Grace was about to have a fairly chaotic week, which would lead to her being, unsurprisingly, totally oblivious to Josh's existence, outside of a nice strong handshake at their first introduction.

Exactly what happened next depends on which one of them you ask, but the facts are that at the end of June Grace sent a friend request on Facebook and Snapchat, and from there the pair began talking. On July 21, 2021 the pair went on their first date at the Calvert Drive-In, to which Josh brought flowers.

Almost exactly one week later, on July 27, 2021, the pair went on their second date. Josh suggested a small hike, and Grace suggested burgers and milkshakes. Conveniently, Craig's Dairy Dream is just outside of the north entrance to Land Between the Lakes, so they managed to do both.

Towards the end of the hike, the pair paused on some rocks, where Josh asked if Grace would like to officially be his girlfriend, which she happily said yes to.

The next few months were a whirlwind of getting to know each other as well as possible in a fairly short amount of time. After weathering the natural disaster that was the December 10, 2021 tornado that ripped through western Kentucky, the pair spent most days over Grace's winter break together. This, in combination with a variety of roommate issues in Grace's apartment, led to the couple officially moving in together on February 1, 2022. (Disclaimer: Do not try this at home. While moving in together six months into their relationship worked out for this couple, they do not recommend that to everyone.)

Following this move, the pair began to develop their relationship further, and discuss what the future might hold. Following Josh's brother Nick's wedding in August of 2022, the couple began discussing what wedding ideas they liked and disliked, which led to the purchase of a binder and the first of many many spreadsheets. This was also the weekend Josh chose to joke that he would propose during a Taylor Swift concert. Unbeknownst to him, Swift would announce an album less than 48 hours later, with a tour announcement coming in the following months.

This theoretical planning became significantly more real in December, when the pair went on a post-Christmas trip to Gatlinburg with Josh's family, where they took the opportunity to look at rings. This was also the moment Josh opted to ask for Grace's friend Victoria's phone number, to get another opinion on rings and proposal ideas.

Eventually, May came, and the first week of it everyone kept being incredibly suspicious. That Wednesday, four days before their Taylor Swift concert, Josh decided to cut his hair, after growing it out the entire time they had been together. That was also the day that Victoria became oddly interested in whether or not Grace was planning to paint her nails or get them done for the concert. Grace had talked herself into believing she was overthinking the situation (a very common occurrence for her) but by Friday, her suspicions were aroused once again. Friday night her other close friend Chloe was at the apartment (both women slightly tipsy, and Chloe raving about Josh's chicken noodle soup) and after Grace returned from using the bathroom, Chloe was also trying to sway Grace into getting her nails done the next day. (If I had a nickel for every time someone was interested in the state of my nails....)

Ultimately, Josh and Chloe talked Grace into getting her nails done on Saturday, and the couple headed to Nashville for the concert on Sunday morning.

After a trip through the County Music Hall of Fame to see the temporary Taylor Swift exhibit, the couple made their way to Nissan Stadium. It had been cloudy all day, and as soon as they got comfortable in their seats, the rain opened up and the lightning began, thus beginning the four hour storm delay.

After four hours crowded on the bottom floor of the stadium, the call was made that the openers would not perform and Taylor would take the stage at approximately 10pm.

Around an hour and a half or two into the set, Taylor got to the "Speak Now" album portion on the set. This is Grace's favorite album, and while the set is only one song, it happened to be the song that came on in the car at the end of their first date. The second the song began, her stomach went into nots, and she knew what was about to happen. As Taylor reached the bridge of "Enchanted," Josh proposed, and the wonderful girls in the row behind them caught the whole thing on video (courtesy of a very well thought out card that Josh planned in advance, which he would love to tell you about in more detail).

After getting home from the concert around 5am (thank you 4 hour storm delay) Grace took a very nice nap and went on to take a final at 10am, before the pair went to tell Grace's family about the engagement, and later Grace had a candle pass to announce the engagement to ger sorority sisters.

Grace continued through finals week with a breeze, and graduated from Murray State the following Saturday. After this, the couple began truly planning the wedding, and they are so excited to share this occasion with everyone.