A California girl and a Florida boy met in the middle in Texas and the rest is history :)

We met in July of 2023 while online dating. I was ready to delete my profile for good and try something (anything) else when Drew messaged me. I was drawn to his faith, intrigued by his sense of adventure, and encouraged by his love for his family and friends and the way he prioritized them. We went out for our first date after working one of my 12 hour shifts at the hospital. I figured if he still liked me after that, then it just might work, and fortunately for me, he did. He then left for a 2 week vacation and while in most cases, that amount of time apart early in dating can be a relationship ender, this relationship was different. We've been inseparable ever since. He would tell you he knew this relationship was different when during a certain river crossing his dog Finn almost drowned my dog Penny, Finn was almost swept off a waterfall and Drew had to go in after him, and Drew had to basically carry Penny and I across the river and I still stuck around- but that's a longer story for a different day ;)

Our Proposal:

Drew completely surprised me with the proposal of my dreams while we were on vacation in California. What started as a trip for my friends to meet Drew and for him to experience some of my favorite places, quickly turned into the best celebration as we got to share our exciting news in person and I was able to introduce him to everyone now as "my fiancé". Since I planned the whole itinerary (or thought I did) and it was pretty last minute (sorry Drew!), I never suspected he would propose on this trip. Little did I know, he had messaged my friends Annie and Sasha, who he had never met before, and asked them to help him plan out a California beach proposal- which they were thrilled to do.

After flying into Santa Barbara and hanging out with friends for the afternoon, we had some extra time before dinner, so we decided to walk along the beach before meeting everyone at the restaurant. It wasn't a hard sell since the ocean is my favorite place, so thankfully for Drew, I happily went along with his plan. He stopped at a beautiful tree overlooking the water on Butterfly Beach and he proposed. I immediately said "yes" and it truly was the easiest decision of my life. I was shocked to look up after it all and see one of my friends James photographing the whole thing- one of the sweetest surprises! We were able to celebrate with friends later for dinner and continued the celebration with more friends all weekend.

We are so excited for what the Lord has ahead, and we're so looking forward to celebrating the start of this new chapter with y'all!