On November 22nd, Zach and I started dating. After hanging out a few times and doing a lot of texting, we quickly started to fall for each other. I remember when Zach delivered cars for Nourse, we talked on the phone his whole way back from West Virginia!

Before Zach and I ever met, we had always known about each other. Our moms, Christy and Laura, were best friends in high school and talked about each other quite often around the house. Also, Zach's dad, Tim, was my basketball coach during my time at Upwards. Though Zach and I never truly met until 2022. We followed each other on social media but never really talked until we had a mutual friend who invited Zach to Starbucks with us. From there, the rest is history.

I remember one day during my sophomore year of high school, my mom picked me up from school and was telling me about how she ran into an old high school friend at Kroger. That friend in Kroger was Christy and my mom told me she had four very nice boys that I should meet. I did not take her advice back then, but here we are many years later, and I am marrying "one of the Cook boys" as my mom said in the car.

One night in the kitchen, Tim and I were talking about how good of a basketball player I was on his team and how crazy it is that now I am marrying his son. I did not know this for a while, but even back then, he thought I was nice and would be good for one of his boys!

For the record, Zach and I started hanging out on our own and was not set up by our parents:)

On February 14th, Zach proposed! I thought we were just going on a date for Valentine's Day, but he had many more surprises that night. While I was at school, Zach and my cousin Carmen set up a beautiful backdrop at the Loft in Circleville. Zach knew I always thought the Loft was beautiful and would love to have my wedding there one day, but we both knew we would need a bigger venue, so he decided to propose there instead! Zach picked me up at my house to go to Cap City Diner for our date. We ended up getting done early and Zach had to come up with more things to do since our family was not arriving at the Loft until 9. In true Zach fashion, we went to Easton and drove through some car lots. When we pulled up to the Loft, Zach told me he had to pick up the owner's truck to take it to work for service, just as he does for many other people. I thought nothing of it until I walked in and saw Zach and the most beautiful set up. Our families were in another room and came out to celebrate with us after. It was the best day ever!