It was a cool and rainy day in the French Quarter of New Orleans. After a long day of non-stop adventure and hubbub, we went back to our B-N-B for some much needed downtime. I ended up falling asleep after a wonderful day with my best friend. When I woke up I found him nervously sitting beside me on the bed. In his hand was a vintage "25 cent ring" that belonged to his grandmother (those rings you can get out of the machine for 25 cents) and he proposed to me. It was the best moment of my life. To this day the costume jewelry ring that he asked me to spend the rest of my life by his side is my "real ring" and is priceless to me.

I had arranged to propose to Katie on the rooftop of a local museum. I was planning to propose the day before our one-year anniversary to avoid any unwanted suspicion on her part. Two days before the planned proposal, the museum cancelled on me and I was left in a frantic bind to find a new location. In a panic, I pulled together my resources and the downtown historic Paramount Theatre agreed to let me use the building to pop the big question. I had ordered food from a nearby steakhouse and set up a candlelit dinner on stage. There was a concert scheduled at the Paramount the same weekend so Katie thought we were going to listen to some music, but when we walk into the theatre there is nobody there but the two of us and our families waiting in suspense on the balcony. As we walk closer to the stage, the curtains open and there is nothing there but the dinner table set for two and the sound of the song Katie had casually mentioned she wanted playing while she walked down the aisle someday. At this point Katie's eyes water up and I am nervous with excitement. Once on stage I get down on one knee, tell her how much I love her and how I couldn't live without her. I asked her to marry me and of course she said yes. We celebrated with our families and enjoyed a romantic dinner on stage.

They met way back when they were fourteen years old as campers at summer camp, but no, the sparks definitely didn't fly then...They then spent their college summers working at this very same summer camp growing their friendship. Several years later she and some of her girlfriends took a ski trip to the mountain (crested butte) where he was skiing for the season. Crazy coincidence right? On this trip they went on their first date together to a quaint little Thai joint. She was sporting jeans, a t-shirt, and ski-hat hair, and he was smiling all the while from ear to ear. After downing some tasty noodles and basking in effortless conversation, their future was inevitable and the two have never looked back...moving forward to 6 months prior to popping the big question, he was crafting and she was unsuspecting. He felt it very important to ask for a hand at the place where the met. So in order to throw off the crime investigative aficionado(her self-proclaimed title) that she is, he suggested to her early on that they should plan a trip to visit camp in the off season and take their furry child (dog), Cub. Nothing but excitement and naivety filled her heart when she heard that idea and gladly agreed. After months of planning details, asking for her father's blessing, and designing the ring, the much anticipated weekend finally became a reality. As it turned out, he planned an elaborately precious scavenger hunt for she and their dog to adventure around camp. Every location and every clue along the way was significant and special to their relationship. It wasn't until she got a few clues deep that she started to suspect this was more than just a "fun activity to partake in" as he had described. Low and behold, the final clue led her to a scenic viewpoint overlooking the river and forest where she found him, her prize. As soon as he caught sight of her, he immediately broke down in tears of joy and asked her to spend the rest of her life with him. Her hunt was over, so she exclaimed yes! They popped a cork, called their parents, and then enjoyed a beautiful picnic lunch as a newly engaged couple with their furry comrade Cub. Unbeknownst to her, he had friends documenting the event in it's entirety and later surprised his soon to be bride with a book of all the photographs of their engagement.

For a couple of homebodies, our love story is surprisingly international. We first fell into a deep friendship during a languid summer spent in Guatemala, surrounded by volcanoes, lush tropical greenery and a mountain of hot tortillas. Several years later, we fell in love surrounded by our best friends in a crumbled, old castle cozily nestled in the Irish countryside. He says it was the way I threw my head back and laughed at one of his jokes that shifted something in his heart for the first time. A year later, these two homebodies from Texas fell headlong into an engagement amid the ruins and the splendor of ancient Rome. Hidden away from the crowds (and my family) in a quiet, shaded spot, he asked me the question that will never grow old. As a token of his sacred promise to be with me when I'm old, doddering, and literally covered in cats, he offered me a diamond ring that once belonged to my grandmother, who enjoyed one of the longest and happiest marriages ever known. I said yes, because, when the boy you've secretly loved since Guatemala asks you to marry him, you don't say no. A few months later, we wed under a Texas sky in October, and the words we spoke that day will bind us forever because we meant them. We are forever, like the diamond I wear everyday. Bring the storm, bring the fire, bring the drought -- time and age will not part us. We are forever.

Barrett and I met while working as camp counselors. Our first date was at a movie theater. We went to see Get Smart one weekend after the campers went home. Throughout the movie we made jokes and held hands! Something so insignificant as holding hands put a smile on my face for weeks. I knew he was the one, when after six months, I realized I was never tired of being around him. It seemed like we could never spend enough time around one another. We started talking about marriage and a few months later Barrett told me he had bought a ring. From that moment on I was on pins and needles, waiting for that moment where he would get down on one knee. So that he could keep me on my toes, Barrett started randomly handing me small boxes. For weeks he gave me small empty boxes, making me think that moment had finally come. It got to where I refused to open anymore boxes, as I didn't want to be disappointed again! I think it was his way of telling me to not over think things and just let it happen. One night, Barrett and I had plans to go see a movie on an opening weekend. I came over to his place, and he told me he had already picked up tickets. He handed me the tickets and that is when I noticed they were not movie tickets. They said "Happily Ever After" on them and had a picture of the two of us in the corner. I turned around to ask Barrett about them, only to find him on one knee with a small box in his hands. At this point I was beyond speechless. He opened up the box (I sure wasn't going to) and asked me to marry him in voice that was shaky with nervousness. Looking down at him and the ring, I yelled out a yes and burst into tears. He then slipped a beautiful sapphire ring onto my finger. It was an absolutely perfect proposal!

To me, our story is an amazing testament to how God works in our lives! On the surface, John and I don't appear to be a good match. We are opposite in every way. I'm outgoing, he's reserved. I love the hustle and bustle of the big city, he loves the quiet of the country. I love music and live concerts, he could care less (unless its with me, of course) I'm left wing, he's right (and don't get us started on politics... the debate never ends). You get the picture. However, I feel like God carefully picked John just for me, and everyday I get to realize just how perfect our match really is. He completes me (as cheesy as that sounds). John and I met at University. He transferred to the school I was attending at the beginning of our junior year. Due to heavy rains that Summer, the new apartment complex we were both living in wasn't yet finished, so the complex put all of their residents up in a hotel and John and I were staying at the same one. Every morning my friends and I would take advantage of the complimentary continental breakfast they offered, and every morning I would see John, eating cereal and a banana, reading the Sports section in USA Today. Needless to say, I took notice of this new boy I'd never seen before. The entire semester had gone by. Then, as I was finishing up a paper in the library just before finals, I saw him walk in and we literally made eye contact a dozen times. I didn't have the nerve to talk to him, so I rushed off to my next class thinking I'd blown it. Until Sunday evening I got a message from a "John Hendrix" on Facebook. He had looked through all the girls that attended our university on Facebook until he found me! Of course, I was so excited! We got to talking, and after a while he asked if I would like to go on a date with him. Our first date was a special mixture of two of my favorite things- coffee and board games. John took me to a local coffee shop known for their delicious coffee concoctions and their collection of board games. We held our very first Chutes and Ladders tournament (something we still play to this day). It didn't take me long to realize that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. I was hooked after only a few months. Our engagement was not an elaborate, cheese-filled event. And while some girls love the epic engagement stories with all the bells and whistles, not me. I'm a simple girl, who wanted to spend the rest of my life with a boy, and I didn't care how he asked me. We had been talking about getting married for months. We had even gone ring shopping together. So, I knew it was coming, I just didn't know when. That Summer, a bunch of my friends were coming into town to celebrate my birthday. That Saturday, we spent the day at the pool and went out to dinner that night. We all decided to go to our friends apartment before heading out to celebrate my birthday, night-life style. Out of the blue, in the middle of our friends apartment complex, John got down on one knee and asked if I would spend the rest of my life with him. He just couldn't wait. My reply was a given. Some things are just that easy. Our wedding day was just as my heart said it was going to be. I wasn't worried about the bouquets being late or that I never thought to schedule a hair consultation, so there was a good chance I could hate my hair on our wedding day or that the bridesmaids walked down the aisle music-less. I was calm and focused. I was marrying my best friend that day and all I could think about was how excited I was. Surrounded by our closest family and friends, we said "I Do" and it was perfect. After one year of wedded bliss, I still get to learn more and more about my honey and I love every minute.

We walked closely down the same road for almost 10 years...without even knowing it. I guess you could say life started together...but separately. We both grew up going to a summer church camp every year, graduated from high school together, went to the same college, involved with the same organizations and had a similar circle of friends for all those years. But...we were never close friends...just acquaintances. Heath would start a conversation on Facebook every once and a while with me. We could trust each other, but never realized the weight of how important that trust someday would be. Not until Heath recommended me for a job he thought I would be perfect for, our paths crossed again. We started working together at a church working with middle school and high school age kids. After one month, Heath told a friend..."This is the girl I am going to marry...I know it." And his friend joked, "Maybe you should date her first?" That's when it all started; the push and pull of our relationship. He pursued me with everything he had, I held back, then I gave in, then I pulled back. I told him that I couldn't ever date him, we were too good of friends. It was one night in the mountains while we were on a retreat together that I realized I would marry the guy I said I would never date. We laid on the concrete in front of our cabin, under a blanket of stars...and both just KNEW. A week later, we told each other we would spend the rest of our lives together. Then, six months later on Christmas Eve, all of those promises came to life. He proposed underneath THE TREE. This tree has my whole childhood written all over it. When we were young, all of us cousins used to play outside at our grandparents house every time we were there. They live out in the country, with a lot of animals, and a bunch of junk all around. We would run circles around its big stump. You would of thought we found buried treasure every time we were there. But this tree...this tree was magical for us. Heath remembered everything I told him, including that tree. Our relationship is woven throughout that tree, the blanket of stars we laid under, every mountain we have and will climb. We promised under a tree, and committed to that promise under a row of trees.

How we met.... We were in intro to art class, and that's where Matt first saw me. He asked around to find a mutual friend to introduce us, and finally my brother hooked us up. We went on our first date and it didn't go so well.... :/ It was awkward. Matt told me that even when he went out on dates with other girls, I was still on his mind. He played football in college and always looked for me in the stands to see if I was at the game. I remember always thinking about him and wondering if something would ever happen. Both of us dated other people but nothing ever felt right. It wasn't until exactly a year later that we went on a second date. I was so nervous and so excited! I couldn't believe someone would pursue me for this long and make me feel so... "liked". It was a great date, and from then on out I was hooked! I really knew I was crazy for matt the night he took me country dancing. I seriously cannot dance, but he made it so much fun! Also, the first night we kissed, he took me back to the night where we went dancing by reminding me of that night and by singing in my ear and we danced in his back yard :) Our engagement story: I had always told Matt that when ever i get engaged, I want my family to be able to be there. It was homecoming weekend at ACU, and my parents were going to be in town. After the football game, all of our families met for dinner. After dinner, my parents took my sister with them and Matt and I left to go rent a movie. Earlier that week Matt had told me that he was taking care of a friends dog for the next few days, so when we got back to his house after getting our movie he said "oh crap, i need to go feed that dog! I completely forgot!" So we drive over to the house (which happened to be an adorable cottage-y bed and breakfast), and Matt grabs his flashlight and we start walking towards the back of the house. Still oblivious to what was going on I start calling for the dog saying "here puppy puppy" and making kissy noises. Then Matt takes my hand and we start walking down a trail that is lit with candles. This is when my stomach flips. I quietly said to him "oh my goodness." Then Matt flips a switch and all the trees light up along with lights down a dock over the water. At the end of the dock, I see a bundle of roses and i knew what was about to happen. He walked me down the bridge. I'm crying at this point. I sit down and matt begins to read me the sweetest letter. He told me many wonderful and sweet things and how he can't wait to be together forever. At this point i see my family and everyone is taking pictures. Matt gets down on one knee and asked if I would marry him?! I said YES OF COURSE!!! We hugged and kissed and took pictures with the whole family. I couldn't stop crying!! It was perfect!!

April 10, 2010 - Shane had been planning this for months, and boy did he do an amazing job! He had told me earlier in the week that he wanted to go eat dinner at his parents house and go fishing in their pond by the house on Saturday evening. We do this often, so this didn't seem like a big deal. He had told me that he would pick me up at 5:30. Once he picked me up, he started heading the opposite direction from his parents house. He then said we were going to get a Cajun Cone(snow cone) before dinner. Hint #1- Why in the world would we got a snow cone before dinner? Isn't that normally what you would have after for dessert? I was confused, but went along with it. The real reason we went to get the snow cone was because he needed to buy some time! As usual, the Cajun Cone line was forever long. We begin to wait, and wait for about ten minutes. We were getting to almost the front of the line and Shane all of sudden asks if we wanted to just wait and get a snow cone after. Hint #2- Why would we just leave after we had waited in line for ten minutes? The real reason was because Shane had already stalled long enough and was just ready to get to his house! Again, I thought this was strange, but I agreed I was ready to go. So we headed to the house. He pulled up straight to the garage and said he wanted to go fishing before dinner. We got out of the car and got into their golf cart to head down to the pond. Once we got there Shane led me down a little stone path he had built to the bridge that leads to the dock. All along the path were rose petals. Hint #3- Why were there be rose petals? All we were doing was fishing! This is when I started to think something was up! I asked what they were for and he said he just wanted to make it romantic! The rose petals continued across the bridge to the dock where a little bench was. He had placed this there :) And on the bench was a book and a rose. He told me to sit down and that he wanted to give me something that he had made. The book was a beautiful scrapbook that he had made of "us". It began with pictures of him as a baby and growing up, then had pictures of me as a baby and growing up that he had gotten from my mom. After those pictures, there were pages of pictures of me and him from the past two years. He had saved loved letters, movie ticket stubs and other little things and put them in too. Then we got to the last page of the scrapbook and it was a letter written from Shane with lots of sweet words, but it was the last part of the letter that got me and that is when it hit me what was happening. It read: "683 days ago we met, 658 days ago we had our first kiss, 621 days ago you became my girlfriend, 588 days ago I told you I loved you and Today I asked you to spend the rest of your life with me." After I read it, I looked up at him with tears in my eyes to find him on one knee. I don't even remember the exact words that he said, because I was so excited, but I do remember him opening a box and seeing the most gorgeous ring I had ever seen, and I said yes! We then headed back to the house and out of the house came all of mine and his family! This was a special treat since my family wasn't from here. He had contacted all of them in advance so my parents and sisters could come in town for it all. I can't imagine the day being any more perfect! What a special day it was!

Matt and I first met almost three years ago at a church function before we spent six weeks in China with a group from ACU teaching English. Our friendship continued to grow through school functions and church functions. From the moment I met Matt, I knew what an awesome man he was. I always appreciated and admired his character although it was from afar. It wasn't until the spring of 2009 that the feelings between the two of us began to grow into something beyond friendship. Matt proposed to me on the evening of August 18, 2010. We were supposed to meet for prayer time but he sent me a text saying the plans had changed and we were going to go to dinner, so I should make sure I was dressed appropriately. At this point, I thought something was fishy. When Matt picked me up, he played it cool. We got in the car and began driving. He handed me a piece of paper that had a riddle on it. I had to decipher it and lead us to the place where we needed to go. The place was the Driver's License Office where we had our first outing together. There, he gave me a page of his journal, a letter that he had written about an aspect of our relationship that he enjoyed and a puzzle piece. Then came the next clue. We continued this scavenger hunt for three hours until we went out to a place in Buffalo Gap that we love. We climbed on top of a water tank to get a beautiful view of the lush, green pastures and the glowing sunset. It was here that he gave me the final piece of the puzzle and "gave his heart" to me (the puzzle was in the shape of a heart). After a beautiful letter that he read to me, he got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife with a gorgeous diamond ring. I was overjoyed and immediately said yes! We enjoyed the sunset, a bottle of wine, a cozy blanket, and dreaming about our future together before heading to a friend's house for an engagement party. Overall, the night was spectacular and we enjoyed every minute of it!

On our way home from an out of town wedding, Greg asked if I wanted to take a detour to a nearby beach town for the evening. Excited by the spontaneous idea, I happily agreed. We stopped at a convenience store for cheap wine and headed to the beach under the evening sky. We kissed, laughed, danced, and waded in the water under the moonlight. Around 2am, as we were laying on the beach covered in sand, Greg asked me to marry him. I said smiled and said, "you betcha". The beach has always been special to us, so it was perfect. It turned out that Greg had actually booked a room in nice hotel nearby for us and we spent the whole next day at the beach before we drove home.

OK, so both Treanne and myself are not good writers so we'll give you all the juicy details but it probably won't sound too great....so here it goes. We met our spring semester of our freshman year at Texas A&M University. We met through a campus organizations that we were both involved in. The night we met they required us to be dressed in costume. I was dressed like Fred Flintstone and she was dressed like an egg. We both noticed each other and went home and talked to our respective roommates about the very attractive guy/girl that we met that night. However, we were not allowed to date because of the organization's policy, so we had to wait until we finished being involved in the organization. So we became close friends. We hung out quite a bit over the next year and got to know each other, we slowly became best friends. We finally had "the talk" or a DTR (Define the Relationship). I admitted to liking Treanne ever since we met, and asked her on a date with me. Treanne was completely caught off guard but admitted to liking me from the very beginning as well, so she agreed to a first date. Our first date was in Downtown Fort Worth, in Sundance Square. We ate dinner then roamed around looking at all the Christmas decorations and lights with hot chocolates in hand. She had her drink in her right hand and I was on her right side, so I cleverly asked "How are you at drinking left handed?" and she said "What? Uh...I think I can" and when she made the switch I went for her hand. We then went to the water Gardens and sat at the bottom of the fountain. We spent a couple hours just being able to talk about what was on our minds for so long when we were just friends. We finally got kicked out by the security guard. Almost two years later, Treanne was about to graduate and I would be in school for another year. We had considered and talked about the idea of getting married while I was still in school, but it was still very up in the air. I decided I didn't want to wait another year to marry her and felt like it was the right choice to get married as soon as we could. After sneaking behind Treanne's back and planning a trip to Dallas to pick out the ring (I lied and said I was going to a concert with a friend, she believed every word of it), I proposed March 5th 2011. I took her to a nearby lake and had an evening planned, nothing out of the ordinary, so she wouldn't suspect anything. From our earlier conversations (hehe) she was thinking that we were just on a spur of the moment picnic date, and didn't see it coming at all. I made a fire and cooked her dinner, we laid in a hammock that we had set up for a while and canoodled and talked under the stars. I asked her if she wanted to go dance by the fire, because dancing is one of her favorite things to do. We put on some songs that we danced to on normal bases. In the middle of one of her favorite songs (that became or first dance song), I got down on one knee and told her I wanted to be with her for the rest of my life. She was unbelievably happy. She cried.

From Helen & Sam: Although we tend to disagree about a few of the details, we definitely met at a friend's birthday party in the sixth grade. After a 'shoe scramble' we ended up dancing, and that was the beginning of our friendship. Skip to three summers later, sitting in the movie theater (we were watching gone in 60 seconds, romantic, right?) Sam waited until the credits started rolling to lean over and ask, "will you be my girlfriend?". And so started our relationship that lasted our entire freshman year. The rest of high school was spent being best friends, dating other people and occasionally dating each other. Sam dominated the football field for the lee rebels and Helen watched life through the viewfinder of her camera as editor of the midland high yearbook. The summer before we left for college, we found ourselves once again on the dating end of the friendship spectrum and saying good bye was hard, really hard. We both cried a lot. During college we would see each other over christmas break, but we didn't keep up like we did in high school. Sam spent his four years of college playing football for the Baylor bears, enjoying the "college life" and, oh yeah, going to school. Helen lived in the fine art building, nannied for a family with four boys, and traveled to fourteen countries (whew!) during her four years at TCU in Fort Worth, Texas. Helen was invited by Sam's sister, Shelley, to attend one of Sam's football games senior year, and that was the start of a rekindled friendship. We spent the next year chatting on the phone (we were still living in different cities) and we met up at the lake a few times that summer. A year later, October of 2009, we made it official. Since then, there has been a growing photography business in fort worth, graduate school at Baylor in Waco, and hundreds of trips made back and forth on I-35. From Sam: In the fall of 2010 we decide to plan a trip somewhere for my last spring break of graduate school. Helen conveniently had a friend living in New York, so it was easy for us to go up there to "visit" Helen's friend. So, the last semester of school rolls around and I start looking for jobs. I have some things coming up in different places and I couldn't hardly imagine moving to any of those places without my best friend, Helen. So I began to realize the best way to make the perfect decision on my career, was as a team. Why not propose to my best friend on this fun little trip we'd already planned to New York City? Before I knew it, I had talked to my sister about this idea and she helped me get the ball rolling; I met with a jeweler, bought a solitaire, and drove home to tell my parents and ask Helen's father for permission, all without Helen having a clue. Somehow, I pulled it off and hauled a diamond ring all the way from Texas to New York City in my pocket without blowing the plan... From Helen: When we arrived in New York City, we checked into the hotel and set out to find Sam a hotdog. He'd been talking about having a "real new york hotdog" for weeks, so off we went. We probably passed 27 hotdog stands and each time Sam said, "we are so close to time square, let's just get there and then I'll find a hotdog." So, we continued our trek and soon came to time square. We were excited! Sam had gotten a Flipcam for Christmas and I knew he was bringing it on the trip, so i wasn't surprised when he pulled it out and started interviewing me. He asked me the usual "where are we?" and "how was the flight?" I played along, trying to hide my annoyance, when Sam said, "OK, we have one more really important question." He then proceeded to ask me to marry him! To say I was shocked is the understatement of my life! We had NEVER talked about marriage (although I'd known he was the one for a very long time), we were in the middle of time square, Sam has a video camera in my face.... WHAT?!? He proceeded to convince me he was serious by telling me he had a ring, pulled a tiny pouch out of his pocket and handed it to me. I stood (still shocked... asking him to turn the video camera off...) unwrapping this tiny pouch and trying to figure out what in the world was going on. I finally got the ring unwrapped, realized it was all really happening, and finally said yes! it was the most amazing moment, ever. Shortly after that I realized neither of us had a camera and i didn't have my phone, of course, so we found a place to sit and called our parents and our sisters to share the good news and did our best to document the moment with Sam's iPhone. We spent that night and the rest of our trip celebrating and talking about our future together for the first time. That was the start of our happy ever after. With the wedding coming up in march of 2012, we've purchased our first home in our home town, where Sam has started working and we are so excited to start our lives together. And to think, it all started with a shoe scramble at a dance when we were 10 years old.