How We Met
Ethan and I met at Oklahoma State University during a sorority and fraternity event called Freshman Follies. The event is a huge show that the entire greek community puts on where each sorority pairs with a fraternity and comes up with a theme for their shows. My sorority ended up being paired with Ethan’s fraternity! I was a director for the show and Ethan was a cast member, which made this story even funnier. I specifically remember meeting him and thinking “dang this guy is so tall how am I going to make him blend into the formations.” Ethan’s mind was elsewhere and tells me that the day he met me he knew there was something special about me. He put up with all of my directing and never complained when I picked out the most ridiculous costumes for the boys to wear. We became good friends during the process of creating the show and eventually went our different ways when all things were said and done.
It wasn’t until my 21st birthday that things changed. I had lost my dad 6 months before my birthday and was not thinking about dating anyone at the time because I was trying to take care of myself. Ethan ended up being the last person to wish me a happy birthday that night on social media and the next day something told me to reach out to him to catch up. We hadn’t talked in a while although we would see each other once in a while on campus. We began texting non stop, since we were on Christmas break, and I was instantly interested in getting to know him more. The day we came back from break we ended up hanging out and it was as if we knew we were meant for each other.
I was apprehensive because of everything I had recently gone through but Ethan assured me his intentions were good and wanted nothing more than to be there for me. I had never felt more sure of anything in my life and knew I loved him after two weeks of spending almost every day together. We began dating right after Valentines day and have now been together for almost three years. I like to think that when we first met back at the beginning of college it wasn’t the right time for us to be together but that God was saving our relationship for the perfect time in both our lives.
how they asked
To say that our proposal was emotional would be an understatement. Unfortunately, Ethan and I have both experienced great loss during the 3 years we have been together. My dad passed before we dated, his grandpa passed about 6 months ago and I recently lost my brother. We have seen each other at our lowest points and have physically held each other up when we needed it most. We have a strong understanding of where our loved ones are and believe in signs from heaven.
For me those signs have been monarch butterflies. I see them EVERYWHERE! They have landed on my car, my bedroom window and have literally circled me before. They are a constant reminder that heaven is so close to us we just have to choose to see it. Ethan knows my love for butterflies and always points them out anywhere we see them.
I knew our proposal was coming soon but after losing my brother I was in Arizona a lot to be with family and hadn’t talked to Ethan about it for a while. When I was planning to come back to Oklahoma Ethan told me he wanted to take me on a date to help me relax and spend time together. He took me to a beautiful restaurant across from the Botanical Gardens in downtown Oklahoma City where we sat outside and had a great meal. After dinner I said that I wanted to walk around the gardens, little did I know that was already apart of Ethan’s plan. Fortunately he already knew I would want to walk around so I didn’t suspect a thing!
We began walking down a little rocky path and I started seeing lanterns with candles in them, which at that point I figured out what was happening. There was a big gift bag sitting on a rock that Ethan told me to open up. Inside was a note from him and from my mom along with a box of live monarch butterflies (cue tears).
At this point I ugly crying and not realizing that he’s already down on one knee. I open up the box of butterflies and they all fly out as he asks me to marry him….I mean come on! That’s like stuff from a movie!!
To be honest, I have no idea if I even said yes I just began kissing him and crying as he’s putting this gorgeous ring on my finger with butterflies all around us.
One of my best friends comes around the corner with her camera along with my mom, who is also crying! We take several pictures, admire the butterflies which were on the flowers around us and share funny stories of how clueless I really had been with the whole process. We walked back over to the restaurant to have some champagne and celebrate a dream come true!!
