Tara and Kyle's love story started in fall of 2020 in Abilene, TX. They both accepted jobs that transferred them to the small west Texas town. Both were new to the area and did not have friends or family close by. Eventually, they decided to download a very popular dating app called Bumble. A few days went by when they came across each other's profiles and ended up matching. They don't remember who swiped right first, but Tara is pretty confident it was Kyle.

For those who do not know, Bumble is a dating app that requires women to start the conversation once they match with another person. Tara thought about how to start the conversation and did not want to do something simple like "Hi" or "Hey", so she messaged Kyle asking him to pick a number from 1-10. Kyle responded with 7 and then asked Tara why she would ask that question. Tara's response was "I'm just really bad at ice breakers and thought this would be better than a basic hello".

After texting each other for a few days, Kyle suggested doing a video call on Zoom before they met in person to break the ice. I guess you can say the Zoom call went very well because they had their first date that following Saturday at a place called PrimeTime, where they went bowling, played mini golf and ended the night talking to each other for over an hour in the arcade area.

It wasn't until their second date (technically third date if you count a walk in the park) at the Abilene Zoo that the two really started hitting it off and thinking of each other as someone they wanted to spend a little more time with.

The rest is history!

It was December 10th, 2022. Kyle told Tara they were going to a company Christmas party for his work. Kyle told Tara it was a formal event to ensure she looked her best. It was cold and rainy that night. The two drove about 20 minutes away to a winery called "Casual Friday Wines."

Kyle was pretty quiet on the drive up to the venue, which was unusual for him. Tara didn't think anything of it since it was raining and thought Kyle was just really focused on driving. When the couple arrived at the venue, Tara pointed out that there were no cars in the parking lot and Kyle quickly responded that his co-workers were probably running late due to the weather.

Kyle told Tara the party was at the back of the property and ushered her past the front door of the main building to a covered pavilion/stage area. As the two arrived to the stage, Tara insisted that the party was likely inside the main building as there was nothing behind the stage. As Tara looked away trying to find a non-existent building, she turned around and saw Kyle on his knee. Tara recalls having a blank look on her face and not taking Kyle seriously as he had done proposal jokes before in the past. Once Tara realized that this was the real deal, she said "Shut up! YES!"

They both recall slightly blacking out as a camera started flashing as Kyle dropped to one knee due to him hiring a photographer for the occasion. After taking several more photos, the couple then went inside where they were greeted by Tara's friends and family. Tara was very surprised by the whole experience and could not believe the lengths everyone went to in order to pull off the perfect engagement!