If you want to just read about the proposal, scroll down the page past this story of how we first met.

So Rachel may remember it a little bit differently than what I'm about to tell y'all but this is a story all about how a Texan boy met the most beautiful New Yorker girl around.

It all started when I first noticed Rachel talking with her friends one day in medical school and I could not get over the fact of how beautiful she was. So I had to figure out if she was talking to anyone at the time. I told a couple of guys in my study group how pretty she was and wondered if they heard anything about her seeing anyone. None of my guys knew. All they could tell me was that she was a believer who is a part of many clubs and loves planning events for these clubs. Alright... so we are getting somewhere. Rachel is a believer in Christ and she is just so beautiful. I really needed to find a way to talk to her more. Well, Rachel decided to hold a dodgeball tournament fundraiser for one of the clubs right before board studying, to try and get the moral of the classmates up. This was my chance to get her to notice me! So, when it came time to sign up, I walked by the booth as many times as I could to try and see if Rachel was there. I didn't see her at the table in the beginning so I waited. Then as it came closer to the dodgeball event, I noticed her around the table! Perfect! So I went up to the table to sign the sheet and looked down and noticed that not many people signed up for the tournament. I tried my best to get as many people as I could to sign up for the event, just so that I could keep going up to the table with them to talk to Rachel. Everytime I went up to the booth, I talked to her but she wouldn't even look at me. I thought she just was not interested in me. But for those of you out there that know me, I never give up. I grew up with an older brother and even when he had me pinned to the ground, I would yell, "Give up bro! I got you right where I want you!" It's just not in my blood to give up! So I went to the tournament with the goal in mind to get Rachel's attention. As I was playing, I started to see a group gather around her and the makeshift bracket system she made up for the event. Apparently there was a mix-up between single elimination and double elimination. Perfect! This was my chance! I jumped in and asked Rachel if she needed any help fixing the bracket? She said, "Yes sir, please! I have so many other things to do!" She then ran off and left me and the mob of people to fix the bracket... Sir?! Really?! Do I look that old? Well, I ended up trying my best to fix the bracket for her and at the end of the night I went up to Rachel and her sister Bekah (she was visiting from New York) and told her how amazing this night had gone... but she was too busy to talk... so I ended up talking to Bekah for a bit and left. I thought that was it... and there was no chance.

Then came board studying. Yeah, the time every medical student dreads. The time when you just lock yourself in a room and study from 7am-9:30pm every day for about 3 months till your exam. In my case, I studied at the school. I had one place where I always studied and this was the third floor conference room. This was one of the most coveted places to study in the school since each room had amazing chairs and white boards and no windows which meant no distractions. The best thing was that there were only 3 of these rooms in the whole school! The perfect place to lock yourself in until the exam. Also the last place I would have ever thought to see Rachel. Rachel studied at home and didn't like studying at the school but for some reason when the board exam came around, she changed her mind. And guess where she decided to set up shop for 3 months? Yup! In the conference room right next to mine. This was my chance, but I had to be careful cause I also didn't want to distract her from her board studying. So every time I got up to use the restroom, I would peak into the room that Rachel and her friends were studying in and see if they were studying or just talking. Only on the times they were talking, I would go into the room and just see how everyone and Rachel were doing. You know, just trying to be a nice guy and making sure everyone is ok this board studying season. All the girls would respond and talk back to me but Rachel wouldn't even acknowledge my presence. So I had to change things up in order to increase my chances of seeing her but I didn't know what to do.

Then one day, as I walked by Rachel's room, I noticed that there was a sheet put up on the door. It was a bracket but this time it wasn't a dodgeball bracket but a Disney princess bracket. It was a bracket system of all the Disney princesses and every day as people walked by the room they would submit their vote and at the end of the day the Disney princess that got the most votes would move on to the next round. At the end, we would all see which Disney princess was best. I'm not really a fan of any Disney princess but if this meant I get to see Rachel more often, then I'm going to be 100% into this!!! But that wasn't enough, I needed to see her more! But again I did not want to disturb her study time.

So I decided to ask around and try to see if the other students at the school would like it if we all met up for lunch and dinner every day in the student's lounge. Everyone unanimously said yes! They all needed a time in the day to just take a break from studying and be together and this would also give me a chance to get to talk to Rachel more. But even that wasn't enough! I needed Rachel to notice me or at least look at me. So I decided to purchase a bell and every day when the clock hit noon and 6:30pm, I would walk the halls and ring my bell calling for everyone to meet for lunch and dinner! But to keep things disciplined, I also had to ring the bell once lunch and dinner break was over to head back to the rooms and study once more. That was probably the best thing I did because, y'all... she finally looked at me and oh did that make me feel good!

So, I then proceeded to ask for everyone's snapchat in the hopes of getting Rachel's. I started to snap her more and more and asked for her number. We only texted and talked in the mornings before board studying and in the evening after board studying to not distract one another. Oh and of course lunch and dinner in person every day thanks to the $7 bell I bought on Amazon.

Rachel and I started to really get to know each other pretty well during that time. It was a difficult time in our lives but it was nice to go through it together.

Later on, I decided to ask Rachel on a real date. I asked if she would like to see the stars with me one night at Liberty's astronomical observatory and to my disbelief, she said she would love to, which made me the happiest guy in the world!!

Registry

We’re extremely grateful to have so much love in our life! We hope to spread that love a little further with our registry. For each gift purchased through the links below, The Knot will donate to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.