I guess we should thank our parents for encouraging us to join the marching band? Maybe we should thank our band director, Mr. Oldham, for making us both Cabinet members so we had to spend more time together?

Regardless of whoever is to thank, Austin and I met through marching band in the summer of 2008 during band camp. I mistakenly called him by his twin brother’s name (I’m sure that’s never happened before!) and we spent the next three years as friends in overlapping social circles and extra-curriculars. We spent increasingly more time together as marching band Cabinet members in the Fall of 2010, and by the end of that year I think we both started to realize we liked each other a little more than just friends. Of course, this was just in time for him to go away to Appalachian State for college while I’d have to stay home to finish my senior year of high school. We had one date together but decided we weren’t sure if we could make the distance work so we decided to stay friends It was a will-they, won’t-they situation; we’d try to see each other when Austin was home for break and text constantly but it wasn’t until February of 2012 before we made it “official”. Admittedly, I think I was so nervous and excited I don’t know if I gave him an immediate answer… oops!

Our college years were spent crossing the distance between UNC Charlotte and App State with long weekends and a summer or two in Boone, connecting when home for break, and countless texts/phone calls/adventures. After graduating, we moved in together in 2016 and we’ve been there since! After almost 11 years together, Austin proposed on the Blue Ridge Parkway just outside of Boone and we’ve been excited ever since to share this next phase of life together with our friends and family.