Our story begins in the summer of 2014 where we met on an Alaskan cruise. Our families were randomly paired to sit together for dinner each night. As the cruise progressed, our families slowly got to know each other. Zack, and his brothers, Adam and Luke, and my brothers, Zach and Elijah would play soccer and basketball together on the ship. I, nervously, worked up the courage to talk to Zack. At our last port, in Victoria, Canada, both of our families happened to sign up for the same orca watching excursion. And on the tour boat, I finally got to talk to the cute boy I was crushing on all week. After the tour, our families walked around Victoria together. At this point, Zack wanted to find out my last name so he could follow me on twitter (very 2014). Luckily, Elijah was wearing a t-shirt from one of my middle school basketball tournaments that had my first and last name listed on the back. While at the Seattle airport, Zack followed me on twitter and eventually found me on snapchat and instagram (again, very 2014). Our families then returned to their respective homes in Texas and Oklahoma.

Over the years, Zack and I kept in contact over various social medias, mostly talking about Longhorn/Sooner football. By April 2019, Zack had moved to Dallas for chiropractic school, and I was finishing up my junior year at UT in Austin. At the end of April, Zack decided to respond to my snapchat story from my sorority formal, talking smack about Texas football of course. And the rest is history. We had our first date in June at Chuy’s and haven’t stopped hanging out since.

During our 6+ years together, we’ve learned a lot from each other. I now look forward to duck hunting season and know what bass thumb is. Zack occasionally wears burnt orange and (unwillingly) knows the lyrics to Hamilton songs. Zack found me a kitten under his apartment in Irving, and now we have a cat son, Sancho. We spend many of our weekends in Oklahoma (typically dictated by whatever hunting season it is) or in Austin for Longhorn football. Zack has worked on perfecting his chef skills, and I of course get the benefit of being his professional taste tester. He even quarantined with my family during the early covid months. The majority of our relationship was spent living in different cities and states. Zack graduated from chiropractic school, moved back to Oklahoma, and started his career in OKC. I graduated from UT, eventually moved to Waco, graduated from law school, and moved back to Plano.

In August 2024, Zack and I took a post-bar trip that started in Copenhagen, Denmark. On our second night, Zack led me on a walk to “grab a drink before dinner,” and in front of a row of colorful houses along the canal, he asked me to marry him. Happiest day of my life.

In the fall of 2024, we moved together to Frisco, and our locations are finally 0 miles apart. Getting to date Zack has been a fairytale, and he is most definitely responsible for all the smile lines on my face. We can’t wait to laugh and hang out with each other forever. And we especially can’t wait to celebrate our marriage with all of our favorite people in March.