Jared and I met at Menards. He was the 2nd assistant store manager and I was a 2nd assistant front end manager. At menards you are not allowed to date your boss, so we were just friends. I then promoted to Elk river as a 1st assistant front end manager and our friendship slowly grew, with the help of our friends. We started dating on November 14th, 2020. With covid causing a halt on going out on dates, we spend most of our beginning dates at home.

I wanted to ask Lauren to be my girlfriend on November 13th, but that was a Friday. I thought I should wait for midnight to hit and then ask her on the 14th and so I did (Friday the 13th, just seemed like a bad idea).

I knew Jared had purchased a ring because I found the paperwork in the mail but I didn't know when he would propose. We had a lot of events coming up in 2022 so he had plenty of opportunities.

Jared and I went on a trip to Texas to visit my family. While in Texas we had a date day in Austin. We went to a vineyard and then he took me to a scenic overlook. The overlook was a tourist spot because it overlooked most of Austin. So we went on a small hike to see the views. On our way back down he pulled me away from others and got down on one knee to propose. He picked a spot close to the edge of the drop off and when he opened the ring box, it fell out and almost went down the cliff. Fun fact, it fell out because he swapped boxes with his class ring box because the ring box from the jewelers was too big for his pocket. I of course said yes! Texas will be forever one of my favorite trips!







I had a game plan for our date day in Austin. First was going to the vineyard to wine and dine Lauren. When we arrived it was a hard downpour rain and I was concerned that it wouldn’t work to propose there. We had some wine and food while the rain passed. We had gone outside to walk around, but the ground was too wet and muddy to travel the grounds and explore. We decided to leave and head to Austin where I hoped the rain would clear up and the sun could come out. Thankfully as we got to the scenic overlook of the Colorado River just outside Austin, the rain had all passed and the sun was coming out. It was very humid now, and a little bit of a hike, but we managed to do the trail and enjoy the views and nature. By this point I was incredibly nervous and trying to find the best area to propose. We found a good spot and when I dropped down to my knee, the ring came out of the box and dropped. My heart dropped, as we were near the edge of the cliff and I thought it was going to be gone. Lauren eventually got the words out of her mouth, but she was speechless when I asked her to marry me.