Engagement Stories: Toye & Kyle

This month's installment of Engagement Stories is a sweet love story years in the making. Boy meets girl, boy and girl are friends for seven years, boy asks girl out, boy and girl get married...you know, a typical love story ;) Now, they have been married for two years this month! Everyone: meet Toye and Kyle! 

How did you first meet?

Kyle and I first met in college...sometime during college. I always thought I would remember the day I met my husband, but neither of us remember the day! lol

What did you do on your first date?

Kyle and I were friends for seven years before we started dating, so our first date was more serious (and borderline creepy by normal first date standards). We went for a walk around a park and talked about where we saw ourselves in the future. We talked about whether we wanted to live in the city or the country and how many kids we wanted in our future... Of course, we didn't know if that would be in our future together or not. After our walk, we ordered a pizza for dinner. Crazy first date, huh?

When did you know he was the one?

About two months after we started dating, we were driving somewhere and Kyle said something that I thought was totally hilarious. I accidentally blurted out, "I love you." It was true. I didn't intend to be the first to say it, but it just came out. I was lucky he didn't hear it and could wait for the right time for him to bring up where our relationship was going. That moment just confirmed what I knew in my heart. 

How did he propose?

Kyle worked the night shift at the time, so we would see each other on odd days whenever we could make time. He ended up proposing on a rainy Tuesday night that we had decided would be our date night. Most of the time when we would hang out it was very casual, so I knew when he called this a 'date night' that it was going to be special. 

We love Italian food, so he took me to dinner at Carrabbas. Somehow after dinner, Kyle complained of still being hungry and craving ice cream. This was odd since he was lactose intolerant. I just went along with it though since I can always make room for ice cream. He said he wanted to go to Mike's Ice Cream Parlor in downtown Nashville. How could I turn down homemade ice cream?!

Conveniently located outside of the ice cream shop were the downtown carriage rides. Kyle gave me some money to get us ice cream, and he arranged a carriage ride around the city for us. After riding around downtown for a while, Kyle asked to hop out by the Cumberland River to get a closer look at the General Jackson cruise boat. I still had no clue what was about to happen. Kyle was silently staring at the beauty around us for about two minutes or so. It was beautiful, but I was afraid the carriage driver would leave us there in the cold, so I told Kyle we needed to get back on the carriage. That is when he nervously knelt down and asked me to be his wife!! 

What are some things you enjoy doing together?

We love to hike, travel, play games and watch comedies together. We keep each other laughing all the time. 

What is your favorite thing about him?

Kyle is a very hard worker. He's got an adventurous spirit and gives everything 150%. He's also my exact opposite, which balances out this girly girl! 

If you would like to be featured in the Engagement Stories series, please leave a comment below! 

With love,

Whitney 

Engagement Stories: Becca & David

This month's Engagement Story is about two incredible people who decided to take the plunge and tie the knot. The two got married in Dallas two years ago this March. This proposal story will make every man you know want to step up his game when he finally decides to ask that special someone to be his wife! Everyone, meet Becca and David!

HOW WE MET

David and Becca used to live across the hall from one another, and one day, Becca came across the way to invite David and his roommate, Tad Kelsay, to a get together she was having with friends. He was so taken aback by her, he forgot to introduce himself until she was almost home. Fortunately, that was only about 20 feet away, or else this story might never have happened. 

He came to the gathering, and they spent much of the night talking and laughing with each other and couldn't wait to do it again soon. After about a month of spending time together, they finally went on their first date. David came to the door covered in a nervous sweat. Becca, though, found it a lot more endearing than disgusting. He also had a dozen peach roses behind his back that he'd spent three hours picking out earlier in the day. 

He whisked her away to Oddfellows and Crooked Tree CoffeeHouse in Dallas, Texas, and the pair couldn't stop talking for hours. 

All great love stories begin with Southern food and coffee, right?

PROPOSAL 

David writes Becca a love letter every month, so he decided to stick with that theme for Becca's proposal, which she always dreamed would be "Big, difficult to pull off and special only to her." David set out to make that happen. 

A few weeks before it went down, he met with two of Becca's friends, Kayla and Lindsay, enlisting their help in making Becca's dream proposal come to life. The two were enclosed in the circle of trust, but kept it quiet from Becca. 

David convinced Becca he would have to go out of town for work early, instead of taking her on their traditional Thursday night date during the fall. It was only to preserve the surprise. When Becca got out of her last class of the day, she found a letter underneath her windshield that apologized for being gone, but said David had a little something prepared. Becca couldn't help but utter an "Awww," touched that he did something special to try and replace their usual date night. 

Kayla had arranged to ride home with Becca after class, but the letter directed Becca (with a cheesy poem, of course. They write those to each other from time to time) to drive to the place where they met for the first time. She left to go do it, and found another long letter underneath David's doormat, detailing how he felt when he met her for the first time after she knocked on his door. Another silly poem directed Becca to trek to the site of their first date. 

Once she reached Oddfellows in the Bishop Arts District of Dallas, her letter was waiting at the front of the restaurant. It told her his memories of their first date, and what he remembered and loved most about formally taking her on their very first date. The long letter, like those before it, concluded with another poem directing her to the top of a hill in the middle of the two-mile loop where David and Becca often run. 

Even to this point, Becca wasn't sure if this was "it." David was gone, and Kayla being around (helping with directions and taking photos of each stop) had her questioning whether or not he was going to pop the question. An earlier conversation that week in which David (with the help of Kayla and Lindsay) convinced Becca that her ring wouldn't be ready for perhaps a few more months, had her believing it'd still be a while longer, too. 

Still, when she reached the hill, the letter was stuck to the pole and in a Ziploc bag. Those runs can get a little difficult, and that hill is the toughest part. Together, though, they can get through it, and it's always easier with her by his side. So, too, would life's challenges, the letter read. At the end, another poem sent Becca scurrying to Sprinkles' Cupcakes, where a key phrase can often earn one a free cupcake.

The final line of the poem told Becca to tell the workers at Sprinkles "Hi, I'm Becca, do you have something for me?" (It totally rhymed in context. Just go with it.) Once she did, they handed her over a cupcake that David had gotten her earlier in the day, along with her next letter. You'd be hard pressed to find a couple that likes food more than David and Becca, and David wrote about how having someone to share it with made it that much better. 

The poem at the end of that letter directed Becca to her glove box, where David had hidden the next letter the night before. He wrote to her about their road trip to East Tennessee in June to meet Becca's family for the first time, and what the trip meant for their relationship's growth and their growth together. The poem after that letter, though, directed Becca to one of her favorite places in Dallas: Petland. 

You can pet puppies for free there, and David had taken her there several times before. Becca, the biggest pup lover you'll ever meet, took some time to play with a puppy while she read David's letter about how much he loved bringing a smile to her face. Nothing does that quite like a puppy. It always brightens even the worst of days, and makes the best of days, like this one, that much better. David knew that, of course, but the final letter directed her to their church, The Village Church in Dallas. 

David was waiting there with his roommate Daniel and Lindsay, who were helping decorate the altar with six dozen roses and 150 candles while Becca hunted down her eight letters. David had arranged to use the sanctuary for the evening, and had the lights down low with a spotlight on the final letter on stage. Becca arrived while David hid, and the letter's final line directed her to turn around. David walked to the stage, knelt down and told her how much he loved and cherished her. He asked her if she would marry him, and she said yes. 

Even that wasn't all. David went to Becca's workplace earlier in the day and arranged for her to have Friday off work so the two could get a jump on wedding planning. He also had some of their close friends waiting at one of their favorite restaurants, Breadwinners, for a celebratory dinner. David needed it. He was so nervous, he hadn't eaten all day. 

The proposal went just as planned, and they'll both always remember it as the day they decided to spend their lives together. 

If you would like for me to tell your Engagement Story here on the blog, leave a comment below! 

With love,

Whitney