They met at a high school basketball game when their two schools were playing each other. He was two grades ahead of her–a junior to her freshman–but knew mutual friends as well as her older brother. They both recall noticing the other for both looks and humor (“I remember saying to my [now best man] that I thought she was really pretty.”), but they didn’t see each other again until the following summer when their church youth groups went on a mission trip together.

Because of their young ages at the time, they didn’t go on many dates, but did spend a lot of time with their friends and talking on the phone. She says, “I don’t think there was a specific moment when I just ‘knew’ [he was the one]. I think it was a lot of little things. I started to realize that I couldn’t imagine being with anyone else and every time we were together it was so hard to say goodbye. When good things happened to me, I immediately couldn’t wait to share it with him and when bad things happened, I immediately wanted to seek comfort with him.”

We met up this past week at Palisades Kepler State Park for a beautiful fall engagement session. I had met Emily previously, but it was my first time meeting Trevor. He was a shoe-in though since I knew he is also a Buckeye fan. O-H-I-O.

Trevor filled me in on how he proposed. “I was not so much nervous, but more stressed because I wanted to propose before Thanksgiving break and there was only one night that worked for everyone involved. Then the guy in charge of letting me into the UNI clock tower (where Emily attends college) wasn’t getting back to me and there was just a bunch of things that weren’t going the way I wanted. But my friends calmed me down and I went to lunch with her parents and asked their permission (they said yes). Meanwhile, I wasn’t sleeping much at night just trying to get things ready. The day finally came and I had all of our friends meet at the top of the clock tower. When she came up the stairs [with one of her friends who was in on it], I felt like it would all be okay. I got down on one knee and tried to remember my little speech I had been going over, but I couldn’t and I just asked her. She was so speechless, she just nodded her head yes. It was wonderful!”