They first met in high school; her a freshman, him a senior. “He was in the classroom that I always went into during my study hall to finish the newspaper for school. We both were dating other people, but I thought he was very cute. Three years later, we both became single and he wrote on my Facebook wall for my birthday. I said, ‘Oh, I remember him! He’s still so cute.’ And I started up a Facebook chat with him.”

Cody is admittedly shy, but where he was quiet, she says she made up for it on their first date. “He spoke in a soft tone the entire time. He took me to a comedy movie and I talked his ear off and he smiled at me and whispered answers to my questions.” This was right around the time that Danielle was first going off to college. “He was always there for me when times were stressful and rough,” she says. “I knew within the first year [that he was the one for me]. I didn’t have a car [for school] so he would pick me up and then wake up at 5:30 AM to drive me back to Iowa and then drive all the way back to work by 8:30 AM. He genuinely wanted to spend time with me and we always have fun together. He can make me laugh so easily. He would sit there and spend time helping me study and run through flash cards or take me to a cultural event for a class. He has always been there for me.”

So when it came to the proposal, it was just as unique and delightful as they are. I absolutely adore this story. “Cody is not a traditional guy. He told me he was going to propose to me in his own way. When we were on our second vacation to Las Vegas, we had gone shopping at one of the biggest malls there. As we were walking around, we saw a Kay Jewelers. I was the one who had been telling him I wanted to get engaged for a long time and when we walked past I said, ‘Oops, I guess we’re going in!’ and walked in.

“We looked around and I saw a Vera Wang engagement ring that I had seen on Pinterest two weeks before. I told him I had to try it on because it was there. I fell in love with it and said to him, ‘Whenever you are ready, this is the ring I want. It’s perfect.’

“Now, Cody is a huge joker and knows how to push my buttons. He kept saying, ‘Oh, if it’s that perfect I guess we have to go back and get it.’ I didn’t think anything of it because I didn’t think he was ready. A couple days later, we were on the bus headed down the strip and the stop for the mall came up and he said, ‘This is our stop.’ I looked at him confused and told him that wasn’t right. He said, ‘It is because we are going to get your ring. You love it and I love you and want to marry you so we are going to go and get it.’ I was so surprised and I started crying happy tears. We got off the bus and went into Kays and got my dream ring. It was something that was so him and that made it so perfect.”

Danielle & Cody are getting married next year and I’m so excited to spend their wedding day with them. We met at Wilson’s Orchard for their engagement session and sheltered under some trees since it was raining when we started. It stopped for a while so we strolled the grounds before finishing up with some of their famous apple turnovers.

They had wanted a few photos outside of Kinnick Stadium so we left Wilson’s and headed into Iowa City. On our way there, the skies opened up with torrential rains that had the streets covered in a matter of minutes. We got to the stadium and couldn’t even get out of our cars so I called them in the next car over and said I’d drive around and see if there were any overhangs that we could make use of.

I found one nearby so using the bus station as my shelter, I had them run out into the rain. Thankfully, just as that happened, the rain slowed down and actually stopped for a couple of minutes. We were able to grab some quick photos before the rain started again! It was an adventure, to say the least.