The story of Taylor and Chris started when they met on August 27th, 2024 when Chris arrived at HoneyRock for the first time. Taylor had lived at HoneyRock and had been working on her Master's degree for about a year at this point. In the first day or two of being at HoneyRock, Chris was confused why the Lord had even led him to this strange place. Taylor was confident in where she was in her job at HoneyRock, but was slightly annoyed when a certain new staff member resisted when she told everyone in the HoneyRock van to buckle up. Apparently, it was only a joke, but she didn't know that.

Only two days later, the entire staff went on a canoe camping trip, and Chris and Taylor reluctantly decided to share a canoe. The thoughts that kept going through her mind while they were canoeing together was "he's cute but he's not for me." Chris walked away from that canoe ride feeling more encouraged about being at HoneyRock and appreciated the conversations they were able to have.

But the crazy girl with the backwards baseball cap and the guy with the mustache and abs had different people they were interested in. She was not at all his type, and he was not what she was expecting the man she was going to marry to be like.

After briefly considering Chris romantically after they played basketball together in early October, Taylor decided they would only ever be friends. He was still interested in someone else. But between shooting hoops and teasing one another at a Halloween party, their friendship would only grow.

On a very cold January day, Taylor sought the help of two staff members to help her with her car that was on the side of the road. The first person to help drove her to her car 35 minutes away but then Taylor realized she didn't have her keys. So they drove back. After the first trip out, Chris offered to help her and take her back out to her car, once she had her keys. Through this car ride, they both realized how deep their friendship could go. They realized how they could rely on each other and go to each other in times of need. Taylor listened to Chris's venting and Chris helped her pour coolant into her car in -14-degree weather.

In March, when she needed help with various aspects of the drama production she was putting on, he helped her out there. He came over to her house frequently because it was a safe place for him. He would even hang out and watch chick flicks with the girls. Chris and Taylor also watched a lot of college basketball together in March. Sometimes other people would join, and sometimes it was just the two of them.

Suddenly, what seemed like a joke was now starting to materialize. On April Fool's, Taylor really wanted to sing karaoke at the karaoke night at HoneyRock with no one to sing with. Somehow Chris got roped into singing "Ocean Avenue" with her. Something felt different on this night. Was this the start of something new?

Later on in the night she sang "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart" but it didn't just feel like a fun song to sing but she truly meant it for some reason. She stayed up until 2am contemplating the idea of Chris liking her and the potential of dating the guy she swore she'd never date.

The next night, a few of the staff and gap year students went to the indoor climbing gym to climb, and Chris and their friend Joy got there first. This is when Chris told Joy he might like Taylor. Once she arrived at the climbing gym (not to climb but to chat), she hardly spent any time talking to her friends Joy and Mollie. She spent almost the whole time talking to Chris, wondering "Would we even be good together? Do I even like him like that?"

She continued to contemplate for another day. Meanwhile Chris told Joy the next afternoon that he really did like Taylor. Later that day, Taylor heard him talking about the gap year students and saw how he cared about them, and she told Joy and Mollie later that night that she really did like Chris. But they didn't yet know how the other person felt about them. They were nervous about getting heartbroken yet again after years of failed romances for both of them.

That weekend was the Final Four weekend in college basketball, and so of course they watched together. They also stole each other's books, teased each other constantly, and tried to spend every moment with each other possible before he left for Chicago on Monday. They went bowling with a group of friends and couldn't take their eyes off each other the whole night. She baked him a whole cake for his birthday and he bought her a blizzard from Dairy Queen. They had an intense moment of saying goodbye before he left for Chicago. And they embraced. Not like friends anymore though.

They thought and ruminated over the idea of liking each other and potentially dating each other the whole week. They were nervous about seeing the other person on Saturday. They were both telling Joy the same concerns they had about the situation.

Finally, that Saturday came and Chris and Taylor finally admitted their feelings for each other after a workout in the HoneyRock gym. The next day he asked her to breakfast on Wednesday morning while they were shooting hoops. After their first date (spending 3 hours at a cafe in Rhinelander talking), they made it official.

They have had a lot of their expectations and differences to work through, as they were not what each other expected in a future spouse. But it was clear after a short time that this was a love story only the Lord could have written. They decided just a few months later to get married.

On October 5th, 2025, Chris took Taylor to his camp in Ohio near where he grew up and took her to the gazebo they went to when she first visited Ohio. She thought he was going to break up with her at the gazebo back in May because of their differences but he only reaffirmed his love and commitment to her then. And now he was asking her to marry him in this same gazebo five months after.