Though their first date stemmed from an online match, they later realized they had met months before. “Jacob sold my friend running shoes at the local running store he works at. I thought he was very handsome, but we didn’t officially meet until our first date 9 months later.” Imagine her surprise to figure out the cute shoe guy she had noticed was now sitting across from her at the restaurant.

“For our first date, we kept it simple,” Jacob said. “I felt bad at first because they sat us downstairs at St. Burch and Mack had recently injured her ankle so the stairs were a challenge. But once we say down and started talking, we clicked right away. She is so kind and easy to talk with and I just felt really relaxed and comfortable around her.”

It was quick–within the first couple of months–that Mackenzie knew Jacob was the one for her. “We had only been dating for 6 weeks when I got stuck at the San Francisco airport due to the Cloudstrike nightmare on Delta airlines a few years ago. Jacob told me he would drive to get me as long as I could get to [any airport in] the Midwest. I had never had a partner help me in that way before and troubleshoot problems with me like Jacob did. I was very panicked and he knew how to calm me down by just being present and supportive. That’s when I knew.”

Jacob described his realization, “When Mack and I first started dating, I was at kind of a weird point in my life. My 5 year plan that I laid out for myself post-college was pretty much done. I had accomplished most of my goals I had been working towards, but I hadn’t looked ahead and was feeling a little lost on what to do and where to go in life. Mackenzie was always excited to talk about future plans and challenged me to keep improving in all the aspects of my life.

“One day, I was out for a run and was thinking about the next 5-10 years; where I wanted to be and all the things I wanted to do. I realized that almost everything I had planned involved her. All I really wanted to do was be with her.”

At the start of 2026, they decided they would schedule regular date nights. Mackenzie was done with her rotations and they wanted to make sure they made time to check in with each other. “It was our first official date night of the year and I volunteered to plan it,” Jacob said.

Mackenzie recalled, “I remember feeling annoyed with him because we were supposed to head to dinner and he was fussing around the house, which was going to make us late for dinner.” (I feel like every single proposal story I’ve ever heard includes some sort of minor frustration from one or both people in the lead up, haha!)

“We were going out to a new restaurant neither of us had been to before called Paper Crane,” Jacob continued. “Earlier in the week while Mack was at work, I had staged the living room with how I wanted thing decorated and the furniture moved around so that we would have I wide open space in front of the Christmas tree and a path of candles leading from up the stairs to the living room. So while her and I were out for dinner that night, my older sister and her husband went over to our house and rearranged everything for me according to my previous staging plan. When we got back from dinner, I kind of rushed out of the car and tried to distract her so I could get upstairs and grab the ring that was hiding in her stocking. (Mackenzie: “He booked it upstairs, so I was like, alright, I’ll flip the laundry, I guess.”) I had just started playing music when I heard her coming up the stairs. All of the lights were off except for the candles and the tree. She was confused at first, but then just started smiling.”

“On the floor at the top of the stairs and into the living room, there were dried flowers everywhere and a candle pathway leading to Jacob,” Mackenzie remembered. “The Christmas tree was in the background and sparkling. It wasn’t until I saw the box in his pocket that I believed it was happening. He waited until I got close and then said these lovely things about me before getting on one knee and proposing. I responded and then proceeded to tell Jacob why I wanted to marry him. After that, we danced to piano covers in our living room…and then I finally began to cry.”

They are getting married at Wilson’s Orchard next spring and they are looking forward to being married and having a great party with tons of dancing. And, “the late night apple cider donuts!” Which is, honestly, understandable. IYKYK.