How We Met: When I was a freshman in college, I decided I wanted to be involved with the Baptist Campus Ministry. During my first week on campus, the BCM had numerous events going on. One of my all-time favorites was Midnight Pancakes. Well, I came to this event with the hopes to meet some new friends and begin to get plugged into the ministry. There were no intentions of meeting a boy because I came to college with a boyfriend back home. Silly me.
That is the night Zach and I met. I love to hear him tell this story because he thought I was pretty, but didn’t want to start dating a freshman the first week of school. Also, he was told numerous times that I had a boyfriend and I’m pretty sure that scared him off.
A friendship started to grow through BCM functions and game days on the Hill. I was a cheerleader and Zach was the WKU mascot—Big Red. We seriously spent so much time together. It wasn’t until a BCM Winter Formal that we truly began to see each other as more than a friend. The next week we spent so much time together and over winter break we went on our first date to IHOP. Zach asked me to be his girlfriend on January 1, 2012 at the Opryland hotel.
how they asked: All week my friends, Mallory & Ashley, had been planning a girl’s night out! We were going to get dressed up and go out to eat. The night of was super dramatic because I couldn’t figure out what to wear. We fought with that decision for about an hour which made us late to dinner. Oops! We went to Mariah’s in Bowling Green, which is one of my favorites. At dinner, Mallory asked me when I thought Zach would propose. “I really think it will be by the end of the year!” I said eagerly. Mallory told me later that night that the whole time she was sitting there thinking, “HA! More like by the end of the night!”
After dinner we went to a local coffee shop and were just enjoying our time together when I got a phone call from my friend Josh Minton. You see the BCM guys were supposed to have a guy’s night that night. They were supposed to play capture the flag on campus. Josh called and there was panic in his voice. He told me there had been an accident on campus and I needed to get to the old alumni building as soon as possible. I guess being the BCM president has its scary moments too. We drive up there and I see cop cars! Two big cops were standing with Josh and another friend, Gage. The cops were scary. I was so ready to break down into tears because I thought the two idiots were going to jail! Well. We start walking towards the WKU chapel because they had “broken a window”. When we got close and I noticed the lights were off, I got a tiny bit suspicious. Turns out it was all a big scheme. I’ll let the video do the rest of the talking…
Video by: Derek Cressman // Florist: Roger // Horse & Carriage: James