We know what you're thinking "what does mustard have to do with this?". PICTURE IT! Knoxville 2021 a young couple meets for the first time through a mutual friend. They sit on a couch drinking some......"pops". That October night the Volunteers took on their most hated former coach Lane Kiffin. In the midst of battle on the gridiron some condiment loving Vols fan wanted to stain Lane's pearly white pull over with some bright yellow mustard. Well that young couple was Sierra and I.

Now, let's backtrack to tell the story prior to the mustard being thrown. We met through our mutual friends Nick and Ashley Ganus, who I also went to college with before they moved to Knoxville in 2018. Ashley, who was an aspiring PT at the time started working for a company called Results Physiotherapy. After being hired she was trained by the clinic's Office Coordinator Sierra. Little did we know this was the true beginning of our relationship. Ashley, who loves playing matchmaker, quickly saw the potential for a match between a new and old friend, which thrilled her.

I had planned to visit them in Knoxville that weekend in October with my little brother Troy as a part of yearly visit. I'm a little fuzzy on the timing of the ask (concussions, sorry) she asked "would you like to meet my friend Sierra? She loves football and I think you two would get along". I at the time was unsure how this would pan out as Ashley at times had picked duds. But for my love of meeting people I said "Sure".

That weekend we went out to meet Sierra. I broke one of my rules for meeting a girl for the first time while unknowingly meeting the same requirement Sierra had for meeting a new guy. We went to eat wings together and while my friends and family will know I am a messy wing eater. But Sierra always said she wanted to see how someone reacted to eating wings with her. Spoiler alert, I passed.

During the first night we talked about many things from football, what we do, and other first time meeting topics. After the wings we all decided to go back to Nick and Ashley's house to continue talking and watch the Vols. After some technical difficulties we got the game on and that my friends was when the mustard throw happened. We ended the night with a hug but did not exchange numbers (my bad).

Fast forward a couple months into December of 2021 and a few months of talking via text since I lived in Ohio at the time planned my first trip to Tennessee to go on what I deem our first date whereas, Sierra calls it our second. That night is when we officially started dating and we haven't looked back since. After a year and a half of dating long distance we now live together in the beautiful town of Wilmington, NC.

Prior to the move to Wilmington, literally 2 weeks before I planned to pop the question on Mother's Day weekend with my mom's wedding ring. Small backstory on the ring as Mother's Day almost didn't happen. My mom's ring originally was too small and I had to get it resized for Sierra. The timeline was the ring would be ready on May 15th when I would've been in Tennessee but thankfully mom gave her approval from above and had the ring back in my possession two days before I left. Thanks, Mom, you da best.

I picked Mother's Day for a couple reasons. One, she was coming back from vacation so she already had her nails and would be tan. Two, we planned on seeing her whole family so it took out the two biggest things I had to plan for naturally. What will be surprising to many is Sierra was a little agitated that morning because she was stressing about time. With some help from her mom Angie we hatched a plan to go back to her house prior to seeing the family so I could propose with the disguise of taking pictures which Sierra NORMALLY loves doing, not that day. I had Angie ask to take some photos outside on the porch. First some pictures with her mom then she says "ok, let's go to Nana's". I being dumbfounded that she didn't ask for a picture with me and asked "what about me?"

She handed her phone to her mom, took one picture, looked at it and said "move over here the lighting sucks". We moved to the other side of the porch, took another picture and she approved of the lighting and again said "let's go to Nana's" to which I said let's do one more. Begrudgingly, she agreed I pulled the ring out and got on one knee and she said "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" then sees the ring and immediately starts shaking and crying and barely gets out a "yes" kissed then hugs me. After that we then went to Nana's. From being strangers in 2021 to fiancés in 2023 tying the knot in 2025 all brought to you by Heinz Mustard and College Football.

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