The formal planning process for the proposal began about two-three months before the proposal took place. The informal process began about one week into Katy and I dating. I knew that I wanted to marry her from day one, and I knew that I wanted to ask her at a place that meant a lot to both of us. Many people thought I would be proposing to her while we were on our 2024 summer European excursion, but I'm very big on sentimentality -- and also big on avoiding standing out in big crowds.

I thought at first that it would be at Hendrix, but as time progressed, it made more and more sense to do it in Cypress. Grammie and Popsie had taken me in and treated me as one of their own from the first day we stayed with them, and I thought it would be neat if we could do the proposal in their backyard. Thankfully, they agreed to it. One of our planned summer trips to Texas aligned with Katy's mom's and aunt's shared birthday, so we set the proposal date for a day after, since most of her family would already be in town. Anyone who knows Katy probably knew that Katy would at least have some inkling that the proposal would be happening that weekend -- and they'd be correct. However, one massive surprise she could have never anticipated was my parents and grandmother driving down that morning and being there for the surprise.

We almost ran into some trouble courtesy of Mother Nature. Hurricane Beryl had made landfall a few days before we arrived in Cypress and had knocked out the power to many houses, including Grammie's and Popsie's as well as Aunt Kathy's and Uncle Mark's. Thankfully, Katy's family was very accommodating and immediately sprang into action to help me plan out an alternative course of action. Aunt Kathy and Uncle Mark got power back a few days before the engagement and were kind enough to offer their house for the proposal and after-party, so we went ahead and moved the party to their house. However, I wanted to keep the proposal at Grammie's and Popsie's, regardless of whether the power returned in time.

Katy's best friend, Brice, was my right-hand man for a lot of the operation. He had met up with us in Cypress on his way back from Louisiana so that he could be there for the proposal and disguised his visit as just a routine visit so that Katy might not catch on to what was happening around her. I had brought down a couple cameras and audio equipment so that we could capture the proposal with video and photos. Fortunately, Brice, Braden (Katy's brother), and Becca (Katy's cousin) all volunteered to do camera and video.

The day of the proposal could not have started out much worse. The proposal was set for 5:30 PM at Grammie's and Popsie's, so we had quite a few hours to kill with not a ton of options. Brice had gone to the birthday party with us the night before and stayed the night at Katy's parents' house. Katy was under the impression that he was leaving that day, so we had a goodbye brunch with him at the Boardwalk before he set off. After he "left", Katy and I had about three hours to kill, and we could not go back to her parents' house nor Grammie's and Popsie's because everyone else was setting up for either the proposal or the afterparty.

I have to take a quick timeout from this story and reiterate just how amazing Katy's family was during this entire process. Without them, there is no way I could have pulled off anything like this. A special shoutout goes to Catherine (Katy's cousin), Grammie, and Amy (Katy's mom). Now back to the story.

Katy started getting really anxious and didn't understand why we could not go home. We had gotten back from the party late the previous night, and I think she was at least hoping she could take a nap before we met back up with the family. Her anxiety only got worse the more we drove around because 1) she did not want to waste gas, and 2) I wasn't able to tell her why we couldn't go home. She may or may not (but definitely did) break down in tears on at least two occasions while we were in the car. Finally, I got the all clear from Brice that everyone was out of the house, so we headed back. The stress and anxiety had finally caught up to Katy, and she had a breakdown on her parents' bed. Oh, and it turned out that Braden hadn't actually left the house yet, so he heard just enough of said breakdown to think that maybe this proposal wasn't going to happen after all. But eventually, it all came to pass, and Katy and I got dressed up for what she thought was another party at Mark and Kathy's. As we backed out of the driveway, Amy called Katy to say that Grammie had left a dessert for the party at their house, and asked if we could go pick it up. It's also worth saying that we had found out 24 hours prior that power had finally been restored at their house, but we decided to stick to the original plan.

Anyways, we pulled up to Grammie's and Popsie's and walked into the house to retrieve the dessert, except we actually didn't enter the house because Brice was standing in the carport waiting with the ring and the wireless mics. I had known from the beginning of our planning that it would be next to impossible to keep the proposal disguised from Katy, so I decided to embrace that and abandon trying to keep it a secret until the very end. So, Brice pinned the mics on us and handed me the ring. Braden and Becca were waiting in the backyard with cameras at the ready, while Katy's family and my family watched from inside the house. Remarkably, I wasn't really that nervous. I took Katy out to a predetermined spot in the yard, said a couple words, then got down on one knee and asked the question. By now, you know that she said yes, else you would not reading any of this. Once Katy said yes, our families came out to greet us, and then we headed off to Mark and Kathy's for the afterparty where the rest of the family was waiting on us. Becca had painted a beautiful banner and wine bottle as decorations to help celebrate the engagement that I'm sure y'all have seen by now in the photos. The whole night was incredible. To have so many people there to celebrate with us was heartwarming. The whole operation was executed to a tee, and that had nothing to do with me and everything to do with everyone else involved. Honestly, it was perfect, and I am forever indebted to everyone involved for their work in making that day so special for Katy and I.

K&A

Wedding Day

CEREMONY AND RECEPTION

#BecomingTheBurks