Sydney and Sam met in the summer of 2020, while they lived in adjoining apartments in Columbia, SC. They were both heading into their junior year of college and lived next to each other for a year before officially meeting. Sam threw bottle caps at Sydney’s living room window until she came out on her porch, where he asked her to stay and talk. They ended up pulling an all-nighter talking on the porch, went to work the next morning at 7am with no sleep, and had their first date at a bowling alley as soon as they got off of work. From there they spent nearly every day together and began dating shortly after. They had several classes together in school as they both majored in Marketing.

Upon graduation, they moved to Charlotte, NC to start their new lives together. They found a small apartment outside of the city and added a kitten named Charlie to the family, to accompany their cat Cleo. A year later, they began renting a house in the city and adopted their labrador retriever puppy, Finn.

Sydney and Sam decided they wanted to travel more and planned a trip to NYC in May of 2024. Little to Sydney’s knowledge, Sam had a plan to propose on this trip. On the day they arrived, Sam took Sydney to Central Park, where they “found” (it was part of the plan) a secluded boat landing. It had an amazing view of a pond overlooking the city. Sam pretended to set up his phone to take a photo, but was really taking a video and got down on one knee. Sydney sobbed. They spent the rest of their trip celebrating and telling anyone that would listen they were engaged.