How We Met
Jake and I are from the same small town in Kansas and have known each other since middle school. We were acquaintances through school and our families were friends but the timing didn’t seem to line up for us until halfway through High School. I had been through a bad breakup and was talking to one of my friends and remember saying “Why can’t I date someone like Jake Gaughan?”
Shortly after that, we started talking. We graduated high school together, went to college together, traveled together, celebrated holidays together and have grown stronger together over the past 5 years of dating.
How They Asked
In July of 2018, I moved 21 hours away to Charleston, SC for a wedding planning internship for 6 months. For the first time in five years of dating, we had a long-distance relationship and grew as a couple in new ways. Jake flew to visit me the week before Christmas and we were walking along my favorite beach at sunset when he got on one knee and proposed right by the water.
I didn’t realize until after I said yes that Jake had hired a hidden photographer to follow us and photograph his proposal. We were then able to take beautiful photos together at sunset by the lighthouse. A few hours afterward, the photographer texted Jake a sneak peek of our photos and asked if he was the one who painted the J & B on the tree. Neither Jake or I had any idea of what she was talking about. In looking at the photos we saw that those letters had been pained on the tree by strangers at some point in time and Jake happened to stop beside it when he asked me to marry him.
Not only will that memory be one of the best in my life, but we also have photos that will remind us of how serendipity that moment truly was.