Ashley: I downloaded Bumble and matched with Daniel. On this dating app, the woman has to message first, so I asked him out for boba tea in mid-November 2020. At the time, Daniel lived in Midtown and I was at home in Pearland.

For our first date, we met at Kung Fu Tea in Midtown and then walked to a nearby park. I was excited to meet someone in the city, but funny enough, I quickly found out we had both grown up in Pearland, just a few miles apart. We even knew some of the same people, but our paths had never crossed before.

We connected instantly. We sat on the swings talking for hours before heading to Simply Pho for dinner. At the end of the night, Daniel asked for my number, and we swapped phones to add our contacts. I warned him about my long, complicated last name, and then both laughed when he one upped me with his even longer, harder to pronounce last name.

A couple weeks later, we went on our second date, exploring the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and eating sushi at Nippon for dinner.

Daniel: After three and a half years of dating, Ash and I decided it was time to start the next phase in our relationship and get married. Woohoo! After we picked out an engagement ring, I started thinking about how I would propose. I knew I wanted it to be extra special since I would only get to do this once. I had been planning on seeing the Texas 2024 total solar eclipse ever since I saw a partial solar eclipse in 2017. I realized how it would be the perfect time to propose, the stars were literally aligning!

Ash wanted two things for the proposal, flowers and the time of year to be Spring. The eclipse was already in April, I just needed to find a location. I purchased the ring and called Windmill Meadow Farms, a wild flower farm in Fredericksburg, and asked the owner if she had any more tickets to come watch the eclipse. She told me they had already sold out, but she made an exception and let me purchase two tickets. I couldn't believe my luck!

The stage was set. I set out with Ash to the Texas hill country. As we got closer to the farm, the rolling hills were lush and green, bursting with flowers of all different colors. I was so excited! We got to the farm and set out a picnic blanket. We laid down and looked up at the sky as the eclipse began. There were plenty of other people around, but I wanted the moment to be special and just between the two of us. A surreal darkness spread across the sky as the eclipse reached totality; I knew it was time. I pulled the ring out of my camera bag, rolled over, and got Ash’s attention. “Hey, look at this”, I said. Ash was so surprised and let out a cute laugh. I asked her if she wanted to marry me, and she said yes! We couldn’t have been happier.