Wedding Date on Aug 5, 2017

From The Bride: HOW WE MET Gavin and I met in the Summer of 2015. I was home for the summer from Northwest, working as an intern at Lathrop Feed & Grain. After exchanging numbers and chatting for a few weeks, we learned that we had many mutual friends, we graduated in the same year, lived 15 minutes from one another and, he actually had a couple of college classes with my cousin, Jake. Talk about a small world. We had been texting for a couple weeks and really getting to know each other. Conversations were so easy and seemed to flow. Gavin was very charming and persistent in asking me out on a date but I was nervous because I was going to have to leave town and go back to school and wasn't sure if this did develop into a relationship, if that was a good idea for my senior year of college. Despite all of that, I finally agreed to go on a date with him. We had planned for dinner and then maybe fishing. FIRST DATE Talk about NERVOUS. I had actually never been on a true "first date" before and when the day came I was so nervous I could hardly stand it. I got home from work, tried on 12 different outfits, did my hair and makeup, gathered my fishing stuff and then paced the floor until it was time for Gavin to pick me up. He pulled in the driveway and I bolted out the door as my family watched me leave out the window. Gavin had turned his truck off and was walking towards me. I told him to ignore the sets of eye balls looking out the window. I learned as we were leaving my driveway that he had planned to come to the door and get me, say hello to my family, and open the truck door for me. I was so worried about just getting away from my googly-eyed parents that I didn't give the poor boy a chance. Whoops. As we headed to Texas Roadhouse for dinner, conversation was awkward and shy at first. As we arrived and waited almost an hour for a table, our nerves settled some and conversation was flowing much easier. We learned that we actually had quite a bit in common and we laughed about how we had never met before. We were finally seated and ordered our food. When the food arrived at the table I noticed something that immediately made me double take, Gavin took his hat off. I know that may seem simple to some but, I had never been on a true first date and I had definitely never been to dinner with a man who took his hat off at a restaurant- thoroughly impressed. Good job Gavin. As we finished our meal, Gavin all of the sudden sat back in the booth and started to look kind of pale and mentioned he wasn't feeling too good. I was a little worried for a second but come to find out, nerves plus a heavy dinner were taking a toll. We finished up dinner, and realized that is was now dark out so fishing was out of the question. I thanked him for dinner as we walked back to the truck and tried to figure out what to do next (I let him open the door for me this time). We just started driving around and I had no idea where he was taking me. I asked him at one point where we were going and he just smiled and said, "You will see." He pulled into a little conservation area off of a gravel road outside of Lawson and just parked. We got out of the truck and looked up and the view of the stars from this spot was amazing. I was in awe, it was beautiful. We sat in the back of his pick-up, looked up at the stars, talked and laughed, and witnessed about 7 or 8 shooting stars. We shared our first kiss before our date was interrupted by some other cars who came speeding into the area. At this point it was getting pretty late anyway and though I was sad the night was coming to an end, neither of us could stop smiling. He dropped me off around 2:00 A.M. and we struggled to say goodbye but, agreed to hang out again soon. I could not have imagined this night going any better. My first, "first-date" was with the most charming, respectful man and I could tell after that night that I was in trouble. THE ENGAGEMENT Fast forward to April of 2016. We survived a long distance relationship while I finished up school and I was now graduated and moved back home. We both lived with our parents at this point and adjusted to a routine of living 15 minutes away again. Our relationship was stronger than ever. Jumping to Winter of 2016 it was almost Christmas and we were constantly asking each other, "what do you want for Christmas?" I had a really nice gift picked out for him and I was naturally curious what he had planned for me. As December kept approaching I was noticing some weird, secret activity from my sister Lizzie and Gavin. I had a tiny thought that he might propose but I talked myself out of it and thought no way. It was December 10th, 2016. Gavin and I had planned to go to Crown Center to go ice skating with our siblings. When we met up, Gavin was kind of being quiet and I noticed that Morgan grabbed a camera. Again, thought it was a little odd but just blew it off thinking nothing of it. I was ready to ice skate! We got in line for our skates and when we made it out to the ice and Gavin, Jason, and Morgan were skating circles around Lizzie and I as we tried not to fall. (Fun fact- Gavin used to play on an intramural hockey team so he was a good skater. I was impressed, yet again!) We finished skating and went to the car to freshen up before walking around Crown Center. We went out to the main area and I was just walking along looking at the Christmas Decorations and noticed the rest of my crew was several steps behind me. I looked back, confused, and gave them a look because they were being weird! (Again, I thought nothing of this. I had told Gavin time and time again that I wanted my parents to be involved in our engagement and I was told my parents were at a Christmas Party this night so I was CERTAIN he was NOT proposing.) Moving on, we finally got in front of the big Christmas tree. We took a few pictures; me and my siblings, Gavin and Morgan, and then it was time for Gavin and I to take a picture. He was holding me tight with his right arm as we smiled for Morgan to snap our picture. After a few seconds he said to me, "Have you figured it out yet?!" I gave him a funny look, obviously confused. I said," Umm, no. Stop talking and smile for the camera." He said again, "Have you figured out why we all came down here?" I again was confused and asked, "...to go ice skating??" He was trying to pull away from me a little bit and I was resisting because we weren't done with the picture. Next, he kind of turned towards me and said " I got you an early Christmas gift." (I could hear the nerves in his voice at this point.) He reached into his pocket, turned to face me, got down on one knee and asked, "Will you marry me?" I was SHOCKED. I obviously started crying and of course said, "YES!!" I heard our sisters scream in the background and a tiny crowd had formed and they were clapping. It was so perfect and special. Our siblings greeted us with hugs and more tears and they all surprised me AGAIN and said that we had dinner reservations with our parents in an hour. I was so happy! We used that hour to call all the grandparents and tell the family. We had a wonderful dinner with our families and I couldn't have imagined it any better. Not to mention, he did a great job picking out the ring all by himself!