If you couldn’t guess from the save the date, Carly and Dan’s story began on the online dating app, Tinder. They matched each other in June of 2014 and chatted through the app and eventually text messages. Although Dan and Carly attempted to meet in person a few times throughout the month of July, they weren’t able to align their busy schedules. Fortunately, they continued to talk despite their scheduling conflicts.
The week before Dan and Carly finally met in person, Dan missed a flight to go to a friend’s wedding. Immediately, Carly, the type A/planner personality, started questioning who this character was who could just miss a flight?!? Later that week, once Dan returned to Austin, Carly was working a conference in downtown Austin and her car died in the parking garage. Although Dan and Carly had STILL never met, Dan offered to come down and jumpstart her car. Carly thought that Dan was either: 1) a really great person, or 2) a huge creep. So, Dan came downtown, jump-started Carly’s car, and they fell in love at first sight! Just kidding! Carly called a friend for help instead because she has watched too many Law and Order SVU episodes and couldn’t take the risk.
Finally, Sunday, August 10, 2014, Carly and Dan met in person. Dan had never had the “famous” Currera’s avocado margaritas, so Carly recommended they meet there for their first date. As they enjoyed avocado margaritas and queso, the conversations flowed naturally, and Carly and Dan hung out, enjoying each other’s company for almost four hours.
Over the past five years, Carly and Dan’s relationship has grown from taking regular trips to the local breweries, restaurants, and West 6th Street bars, to moving into a house together, to losing a combined 120 pounds, and to Dan managing to pull off a surprise marriage proposal. Although their relationship has changed throughout the years, there will always be a few traditions that will never die, like the University of Texas baseball games, HBO and Netflix series marathons, Carly’s OCD about not letting Dan help with Sunday food prep, Dan’s softball and video game obsessions, and their love for their dog Nala. Oh, and of course, their love for each other.
Early 2018 was not an easy time for Carly and Dan. Mid-February, they discovered they had a minor case of bed bugs. Sparing you the gory details: for about a month, there was minimal sleep, copious amounts of laundry, and living out of clear plastic bags. The morning of March 21, exactly one month before Carly’s 32nd birthday, Carly and Dan were at the point of pure exhaustion. Dan had been planning his proposal to Carly for weeks, but all he was missing was an afternoon where Carly was away from the house. This day seemed to be the best opportunity, so the decision was made, even though the morning ended with a frustrating bed bug disagreement, Dan was going to propose to Carly.
After dinner with some friends, Dan rushed home to beat Carly to the house. As Carly entered the front door, she noticed a trail of rose petals leading through the house to the back porch. Thinking Dan was sending a good faith gesture due to the morning’s argument, Carly didn’t have a clue about what she was walking into. As she opened the back door, she saw rose petals scattered about, balloons hanging around the porch, and Dan standing under a sign which read, “Will You Marry Me?” In pure shock, Carly stared at Dan for what seemed like five minutes repeating, “What are you doing? What are you doing?” Once Dan finally stopped Carly from asking her question, he was able to ask her to spend the rest of their lives together and she gladly said “Yes!”