Ryan and I first met in person at the church we attend in Nashville. We both noticed each other standing across the room before the service and immediately recognized each other. We locked eyes multiple times but I was too nervous to go up to him.. HE WAS SO CUTE. After the service ended, Ryan approached me and said "Hey, you're Carlyle right?" He asked for my number and I of course gave it to him. It wasn't even an hour later that he texted me asking me on a date the next day. I thought it was extremely refreshing that he knew what he wanted, was straight forward and wasn't playing games. We went on our first date the very next day and the rest is history!

Our first date was the day after we had first met at church. We went to Soho House in Nashville, where I'm a member and played "Boozy Bingo." Basically once a month the house hosts a fun bingo night with complimentary drinks. As the game was winding down, Ryan proceeded to tell me that his family (brother, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, grandmother and other family members) were actually having dinner in the next room. He asked me if I wanted to go meet everyone, so I ended up hanging out with his family on our first date... talk about nerve-wracking!! After joining them for a cocktail, Ryan and I ended up sneaking into the private movie theatre at Soho House. It was completely empty and we sat in there for hours talking about life, Faith, our hopes, dreams, family and all the good stuff. It was like we had known each other forever and could talk about anything. It was an unexplainable instant connection and was so magical. I felt so comfortable around him and more importantly, all of our core values aligned. After that we walked to a few other bars around the Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood in Nashville. Our date ended up lasting until the early morning hours, as neither of us ever wanted it to end. We went on our second date 2 days later and never stopped dating after that. Later on I found out that Ryan had called his mother right after our first dates and said something around the lines of "I don't know why I'm calling to say this but I feel like it's really important that you know, I'm pretty sure I met my future wife tonight." His mom said that it was very unlike him to say something like that and that he had never said that to her before. I thought it was the sweetest, most special thing ever when I heard about that later on!

We started dating at the beginning of October 2022. Ryan asked me to be his girlfriend at a surprise sunset picnic at a well-known Nashville overlook called Love Circle. He brought a picnic basket filled with cheese, crackers, wine and flowers. I had never had a man pursue me like that! He handed me the sweetest love note asking me to be his girlfriend once the sun started setting, it was so romantic! My love language is acts of service and gifts, Ryan knows that and has written me handfuls of letters since that day. Ryan proposed and asked me to be his wife on 10/27/23. We dated a little over a year before getting engaged... Even though Ryan says he knew he wanted to marry me on our first few dates. ;)