Meeting Sarah was years in the making, going back to Kevin working on a job in Maryland back in 2015-2017. On that project I met a lot of friends and people to hang out with over those few years. Some of those friends were Eric and Brooke Grewcock. Little did I know that would lead to meeting Sarah years later.

Several years after leaving that project, and working a few years in Pittsburgh PA on another, I moved to a project in Michigan near South Bend, a couple hours from Chicago in the summer of 2020. Shortly after moving to that project I received a message from someone I hadn’t talked to in a few years, that person was Brooke Grewcock.

Brooke reached out and said she had a good friend she wanted me to meet/connect with. And in Brooke’s words not sure how it will work out as it’s not really logistically reasonable and wasn’t sure how it would work out talking to a complete stranger.

So Brooke gave me and Sarah each other’s numbers to put us in touch. At this time Sarah had just recently left Chicago and was moving to Dallas. With it being Covid she was spending time between Dallas, Omaha, and visiting Chicago. Me and Sarah talked for a little bit but living in completely different parts of the country made it difficult.

Over the next few years we would talk every once in awhile. Whether that was when Sarah was going to be in Chicago doing something fun with her friends and seeing if I could make it out to Chicago to meet or when the Dallas Stars played the STL Blues in hockey with Sarah’s new found hockey fandom. Including Sarah and Brooke buying jerseys at a game. But with the messaging back and forth it never worked out to meet in person. Cue New Years Day 2024……

I was at home in KC getting ready to fly out for another week of work in TN the next day when I received a FaceTime from Sarah. Sarah was hanging out with Brooke and Eric at their house in Frisco. She called and asked if I wanted to go on a trip to Bali that April? One of the other couples that worked on the same project in Maryland was planning a trip to Bali and asked Brooke and Eric if they wanted to go that day. So they decided Sarah had to go on the trip as well, and thought it would be a perfect opportunity for me and Sarah to meet in person. So Sarah asked if I wanted to go to Bali, and me always being up for traveling and the next adventure said sure, just need to know the details.

So a few weeks go by and I hadn’t heard anything about the trip, so reached out to Sarah and asked if we were still going to Bali. The Bali trip didn’t work out and we didn’t go but that conversation led to Sarah saying I should just come down to Dallas to meet in person. So I bought flights and went to Dallas to meet Sarah a few weeks later.

We hit it off, and spent the next several weekends with each other between Omaha, Kansas City, and Dallas. And from there kicked off our long distance relationship. And our jet set relationship kept going with us visiting each other and making trips around the country to different cities and many sporting events.

All of this lead to the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo in January 2025. Sarah planned a weekend in Fort Worth to go to the rodeo and hang out with friends where we were staying at her favorite place Hotel Drover in the Stockyards. Unbeknownst to Sarah I planned on hijacking the Friday night of the weekend. We arrived in Fort Worth Friday afternoon and walked around the Stockyards going to stores and grabbing a few drinks. We all went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. While Sarah was finishing getting ready I “went down to go meet the guys at the bar” and set the stage for the proposal. When Sarah came down with the girls I was able to get her alone and propose to her surprise! After that great night it brought us here.

Kevin’s recap of how we got here is spot on, but let me add a little more detail about the surprise engagement day—because, wow, I did not see it coming.

Unbeknownst to me, Kevin had been planning this for months. He asked my parents and brothers for their blessing over Christmas, bought the ring weeks before, and secretly coordinated everything with my friends to make sure the day went perfectly. Looking back, there were definitely signs—but I missed every single one of them. Case in point? I haven’t gone a day without my nails done in 15 years, yet I decided on January 1st that I’d take a little break. A clear indicator I had no idea what was about to happen.

That afternoon, we planned to head to Fort Worth around noon, but I decided at the last minute that we needed to drive 30 minutes out of the way to pick up a shirt I wanted (which, funnily enough, I ended up wearing that night). We finally got to the hotel around 2:30 and met up with Brooke and Eric for some Stockyards shopping and drinks. I was on the hunt for a new cowboy hat from a popup shop, completely oblivious to the fact that this day had a bigger purpose. I was so clueless that I branded my new hat with my current initials—oops.

Around 5, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for what I thought was just a small dinner of friends at 6:30. Kevin was eager to get downstairs to the lobby because he needed to be first in line for a complimentary leather luggage tag branding. He was about to rush out of the room, but his shirt was wrinkled, and I suggested we steam it before heading out. I could tell he wasn’t thrilled with the idea, but he agreed—thank goodness! 😊

Fifteen minutes later, I called him because I had forgotten my hat in the car. What I didn’t know was that he was actually meeting the photographer and picking out the perfect proposal spot. He seemed a little stressed, but again, I didn’t suspect a thing.

I took my sweet time getting ready. Brooke came to my room to help with my outfit, though in reality, she was mostly trying to hurry me along so we wouldn’t miss the sunset. We walked downstairs to the outdoor bar, where our other friend, Jena, was waiting, margaritas in hand. I spotted Kevin standing alone a little way off. I assumed he was just on the phone, while the other guys were hanging out nearby. As we walked toward Kevin, Brooke and Jena kept going, but I asked him if he wanted to go sit with our friends. He casually replied, “Just hang on for a second.”

I froze. “What are you doing?” I asked.

And that’s when he got down on one knee.

In regards to my newly branded hat? The next day, I marched right back to the store and crossed out the ‘G,’ replacing it with an ‘H’—plus the date. Picture on our pictures tab :)