The short version is that we met through mutual friends.

The long story is ... long but sweet and maybe a little entertaining.

Only two single, professionals in Lubbock, Texas can understand the struggles of dating in a college town while attempting to juggle a serious career as new associate attorneys at "big" Lubbock law firms, so our journey in finding one another is, to us, nothing short of amazing.

To give you some background on us, Spenser grew up in Lubbock, Texas and graduated from Lubbock High where he played copious amounts of soccer. Thereafter, he attended a liberal arts school in Georgetown called Southwestern University where he majored in Economics and minored in Spanish. During the spring semester of his second year in college, Spenser studied abroad in Argentina where he perfected his Spanish speaking skills much more than Laney, which he certainly is not afraid to rub in her face. ;) After graduating from Southwestern (in only three years – even with that semester abroad), Spenser decided to come home to Lubbock and attend law school. But being the overachiever that he is, he not only received a J.D. during his time at Texas Tech, he also earned his Masters in Financial Planning (something he will start teaching Laney AFTER the wedding). After graduating and passing the bar, he spent time working as a landman for an oil and gas company before landing an associate attorney position at one of the oldest law firms in Lubbock – Crenshaw, Dupree, and Milam.

Laney spent all of her holidays since she can remember with her extended family in Lubbock. Even though she grew up in Flower Mound, she’s always considered Lubbock her “home”. She spent 18 years performing with the prestigious Dancin’ Feet Performing Company directed by Jana Mitchell and also served as captain of her high school cheerleading squad for four years. After graduation, she ran off to California to attend the University of California, Berkeley. She created her own major at Berkeley and spent her time studying the relationship between the law, race, culture, and society in the United States. During her second year, Laney served as a PAC-10 cheerleader for the California Golden Bears but forewent a second year on the team in order to spend a semester abroad. During her third year at Cal, she spent her spring semester in Madrid, Spain. She came home speaking better Spanish than she ever had – but she admits, it’s no where near as good as Spenser’s Spanish. One year later, in May of 2012, Laney graduated with High Honors from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in American Studies. By that time, Laney’s parents had relocated to Lubbock. After finishing an incredibly theoretical degree, she decided she’d get a skills-based degree and attend Texas Tech for law school, where her father graduated from law school in 1981. Never thinking she’d actually practice law, Laney got involved in the national mock trial teams at the law school and was determined to become a litigator. She swears that the best day of her life was when Chad Inderman offered her a job in the Litigation Department of Glasheen, Valles & Inderman – a prestigious injury law firm with offices in Lubbock, Austin, El Paso, Odessa, Dallas, San Antonio, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

That is until she met Spenser.

Although we are both attorneys in a small community, we never met. (This is highly debated by some friends that swear we met during law school when Spenser was a 3L and Laney was a 1L.) On Tuesday and Thursday nights, Alamo Drafthouse (a movie eatery) and Geeks Who Drink host trivia night. Although both of us had attended with our mutual friends on several nights over the past years, it wasn’t until February 9, 2017, that we both attended and served on the same trivia team. Laney was the first one there and was sitting alone when Spenser and a mutual friend walked in. While discussing something totally unrelated with the mutual friend, Spenser spoke his first words to Laney by interrupting and saying, “I heard you’re an ambulance chaser.” Caught completely off-guard by this incredibly unrelated and unnecessary comment, Laney looked at Spenser and said, “I resent that” and continued her other conversation. They sat across from each other all night, contributed nothing to the trivia game, made eye contact, and exchanged slightly adorable insults for the rest of the evening. Laney left thinking – “I’m going to date him!” Spenser left thinking – “that girl was obnoxious.” Spenser’s feeling only lasted until the next time the two hung out, which was only five days later on Valentine’s Day.

It’s not a joke that we’ve been inseparable ever since.

Neither of us can remember the moment that we fell in love. It may have been the first night we stayed up late playing Scrabble jamming out to Kendrick Lamar’s brand new album. Or it could have been the time we high-fived, hugged and almost cried when we realized that we had successfully potty-trained Emmy, our new Goldendoodle puppy. Or maybe it was our first night of Journey of Faith classes for Laney’s conversion to Catholicism when we picked the most perfect words (and now our motto) from a stack of note-cards. #peaceandjoy All we know is that we’ve never felt more complete than we do with each other and cannot remember what it was like when we did not have each other.

As for the proposal, Spenser went all out. We flew to Las Vegas and he surprised Laney with a table overlooking the Bellagio fountains (her favorite) at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant. Laney, distracted by the bottle of wine on the table and wondering why no one had opened it yet, wasn’t even listening to Spenser as he told her he loved her. “Yeah, I love you too, babe, but can we open this bottle of wine on our table?” Spenser finally had to say, “Laney listen to me.” Before the camerawoman could even get to the table, Spenser said, “Laney, you’re my peace and my joy – will you marry me?” All Laney could say back is “Are you serious? Are you sure?”

She finally said yes.

**As a side note for those that don’t know – Laney’s entire mother’s side of the family has names beginning with P’s. Paula, Pam, Pat, Pris, Paul, Penny, Poni, Paige, and Payne. Always upset with her parents that she has not one single P in her name, she named her poodle, Preslee. Now that Laney is marrying Spenser, she finally gets to have a P in her name like the rest of her family and cannot wait to be Mrs. Delaney Piercy.

#LaneyFinallyFoundHerP