How We Met
The funny thing about our story is that we grew up in the same town, but went to different high schools and hadn’t ever crossed paths through mutual friends or anything like that. In fact, Parker’s mom even did senior portraits of me a couple of years before Parker and I met.
During the summer of 2013, Parker and I happened to meet at a Casey Donahew concert celebrating Rockwall’s Founder’s Day. Parker likes to say “I found her on Founder’s Day”. We only got to chat for a few minutes, but I thought he was cute. However, I thought that I might not ever see him again.
Little did we know that 2 days later, I would walk into the first day of my summer internship (late, I might add-and I’m never late) (there’s a story there too but I’ll spare you the details) only to see that the other interns had to wait on the last one to arrive before they could begin. Much to both of our surprises… in the last chair sat the cute boy that I met at the Casey Donahew concert 2 days prior!
And so we began a summer job internship together. Now is a good time to interject that I am the boss’s daughter. So, you can only imagine the nerves of trying to figure out a way to date the boss’s daughter! His angle was to convince the other interns to bring their lunches to work so that they would NOT be going out to lunch and then it would just be the 2 of us. (It worked!)
Fast forward a couple of weeks and he asked me out on a date. He was on the search to find a white lab puppy and asked me to tag along. (Puppies on a first date? Who could turn that down?) I got to help pick out Hondo, man have the 3 of us made some memories since then…there wasn’t a day that summer that we weren’t together.
As summer came to an end, we both headed back to our colleges…..13. hours. away. from each other. We had a long distance relationship for a year, getting together as often as we could. But I soon decided I wanted to become a Red Raider and moved to Tech.
Such a great decision, because those have been some of the best years and we have made so many great memories. 5 years later, and Parker got down on one knee and we are excited to start forever together.
how they asked
Our families both love to travel to the islands, and this summer we had the opportunity to all be there at once. Little did I know, Parker had a plan in place and people were assigned jobs to help pull off the perfect surprise proposal.
We already had a couple of great days there, then the morning of July 4th we sailed around more islands, snorkeled a little bit, stopped off at some island bars and just enjoyed the day. Then before heading to our island dinner destination, we stopped off at our favorite little island (emphasis on little) called Sandy Spit. It is literally just a spit of sand, used to have a few palm trees, but no more …thanks Irma! Some of the family were tasked with distracting me, while others set up the proposal site.
He had decided on a message in a bottle placed on a Turkish towel surrounded by photos that captured some of our favorite memories. He led me down a “path” which started with a bottle of champagne with a label on it saying “It’s Happening!” (because let’s be real, we had dated for 5 years, lol.)
All of the sudden it hit, it REALLY is happening.
At the end of the path was a handwritten letter inside of a bottle. Parker’s heartfelt words about our relationship and future together brought me to tears. He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. One of the best parts was that our families were there to witness and to celebrate this huge milestone for us. Next came champagne toasts, lots of hugs, happy tears and lots of dreamy photos.
We ended the night at Foxy’s on Jost Van Dyke (the best way to celebrate)
One of the most special parts of our proposal is that my fiance’s mom (who is the most amazing senior photographer) was there to capture this moment in the most perfect light and in the most perfect way. THEN, she made our engagement video to share with our friends and family! Forever thankful these moments were captured.
