Auto maintenance class isn’t where you’d expect to meet your future spouse, but that’s just where Rachel & Max first spotted each other. It was near the end of senior year. Just a short time later, on Memorial Day weekend, they had their first date. She says they kept it low-key, off-roading and shooting at the range then back to her family’s house to watch movies. “I think he was cute and charming,” she says. “He was very different from other guys I dated both before and after him until we reconnected in 2013.”

“We actually weren’t dating at the time [when I knew he was ‘the one’], but while I was in undergrad out in Virginia, Max came all the way from Iowa to be at my graduation. Everybody that saw us together thought we had been dating for a long time. This was reinforced when Max visited me several other times while I was in med school in Ohio.”

They got engaged at the beginning of this year while on vacation. “Max planned a surprise to Cancun. When we go to this beautiful resort, he planned a romantic dinner on the beach, but it got rained out. This happened 2 other nights as well. Finally, on the last night, the weather was perfect and the dinner went as planned. After we finished dessert and our after-dinner drinks, he asked the waiter if he could take a picture of us. He had me stand up to pose for a photo, then took my hand and dropped to a knee and proposed. The picture shows my genuine surprise. He told me had had had to wait 3 nights to do it and have been so nervous, which is cute because Max isn’t really the type to ever get nervous.”

I’m so excited to celebrate their marriage with them next year! We will hopefully be able to take this same picture again under the Englert marquee as this is where their ceremony will be!