We met at church through the young adults program. We became friends at a Frisco Roughriders baseball game, but at that time we didn't see each other as anything other than friends. I (Steven) was already on the leadership team, and she got added onto it. We began to see each other more frequently during meetings and events, and found out about our mutual love of reading and pop rock. We would let each other know about what books we were reading, and even exchange them from time to time (the earliest exchange was Educated by Tara Westover (great book if you have never read)). Our friendship continued to blossom when we went to an Aggie game with our friends. The game was meant to be a whole group, but ended up being just us with another couple. This is the weekend feelings began to form, but I (Steven) was in a program at the church in which I had agreed not to date for the year, so nothing could progress past the book exchanges and group hangs until May.

And May finally came. And the feelings were still there! Our first date was to the Bishop Arts District, where we ate pizza, drank cider, and listened to Taylor Swift (three things that have remained consistent in our relationship). We continued to date over the summer, spending a lot of time in the pool and at coffee shops. We visited my (Steven) grandma in California over Labor Day, and have since both told each other we knew this was the weekend we wanted to marry each other.

I (Steven) began to put together a proposal plan, and got lots of help from both family and friends along the way. After visiting her family in Kingsland, the plan was to stop at a nice restaurant on the way back to Dallas. She had mentioned not having a lot of special places outside in the Dallas area (but to be fair it had been over 100 degrees for the majority of our relationship), but the Belton area has been a place we have talked about camping and maybe retiring to one day. So, I pulled off the highway a few stops early and that's when she began to get suspicious. My sisters had set up a small table with some pictures in a park by Stillhouse Hollow Lake, and that's where I popped the question. And she quickly said "Yes!"

We are thankful for all the people who have loved and supported our relationship to this point, and cannot wait to celebrate with everyone on April 14th!