How We Met
So, by this point, that cat is out of the bag. Amanda and Zack met on everyone’s favorite dating app, Tinder. Zack was looking to date, while Amanda was not. She was on there to be a good friend to her gal pal, but did not hate the boost of confidence from her matches. But then it all changed when Zack saw Amanda went to USC, a fellow PAC-12 school (Go Cougs! though) and her goofy photos in a tutu, and for Amanda when she saw Zack’s profile, which included the line of “wears basketball shorts more than is appropriate” and the dreamiest stripped sweatshirt she had ever seen (insert emoji heart eyes).
Amanda and Zack talked for about a week, and Amanda, in Zack’s words, basically demanded that she meet him ASAP. Which lead to their first date on 6/1/16 at Connor’s in Fort Myers, Florida, and an awkward first date hug, which included their first words to each other — “let’s get this over with already” from Amanda. They met at 7:45PM (7:52PM for Amanda, she said she’d be 7 minutes late), and they didn’t leave the restaurant until 2:30AM. There was instant chemistry, no doubt. They spent everyday together until Zack moved to Saint Petersburg, Florida for his promotion at the beginning of July. They dated long distance via I-75, but it was already history by that point.
Amanda moved to be with Zack in April 2017, when she left college coaching to pursue other career opportunities and a future with Zack! That was our very first photo together, about two or three weeks after our first date. On vacation together at Hilton Head Island. I love the way he looks at me! This photo was at a wedding of our friends in May 2017. Funny thing was, Zack picked out the diamond to my ring that morning!!
how they asked
Zack proposed on 7/1/17. We were catching a flight that afternoon to Amanda’s family house, but we were able to sleep in. Zack was clearly anxious, as he still woke up very early. He was obnoxiously playing with our cat, which in turn, woke Amanda up extra early that morning — 7AM to be exact. Amanda did not think anything of it, as she just groaned at him to stop messing with the cat that early. Zack then was very adamant about finishing packing, and got right up once he noticed Amanda was awake. He went out to his car and came back with a gift. Zack is very into the holidays, so he came back into the bedroom with a pair of American flag converse shoes. He was very excited to match all weekend over the holiday with the shoes. Amanda thought they were nice, and just smiled at Zack and said thank you. In reality, she was like, “What the heck are these for?! These are so corny!!”.
Zack then goes and leaves the room again to grab more things to pack, to leave Amanda still laying in bed under the covers literally rolling her eyes at the sneaker gift. Zack then comes back into the room with something else in his arms, and lays it on Amanda’s lap saying “Well, is this a better gift?”. When Amanda was working a camp in June, Zack had bought a mirror and literally hand etched a mirror with a poem asking Amanda to marry him. Amanda was so overwhelmed, I mean she was literally still laying under the covers from waking up! She looked at the date he had in the poem, and her answer to the proposal was “We can’t get married on a Wednesday!” (he put down 8-1-18 as our wedding day, since we clearly love palindromes after meeting on 6-1-16, and were engaged on 7-1-17).
Zack was standing next to her going, “is that a yes?!” and Amanda realized she hadn’t given him an answer yet! She of course SHOUTED YES and was speechless over the moment and THAT RING!! They put on their matching sneakers and caught the flight to the lake house and surprised Amanda’s family upon their arrival with their engagement. It was an engagement story that fit them both perfectly.
Who knew a PAC-12 Trojans and Coug could fall in love?
