The beginning of our story is one that is hard to pinpoint. This is because the longer that time goes on, the more that Lauren and I realize how much the Lord has intricately woven His hand into our individual paths so that we would not only meet each other but meet each other when the time was right. With that being said, this is generally how things went down:

During my senior year at Georgia, my friends and I drove down to the plains of Auburn, Alabama for the 128th edition of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry. Instead of having to bunk up in some random hotel on the side of I-85, a couple of generous friends named Lydia and Kathleen opened up their home to us that weekend: a quaint little house on Casey Avenue known by the Auburn Chi Os as “The Lakehouse" because of a wooden porch so big it looks like a boat dock (a feature of the house that proved to be important later on in the story). That Saturday we enjoyed a rather thrilling game in Jordan-Hare Stadium that saw the undefeated #1 Dawgs beat the unranked Tigers by a score of 27-20 to win their 7th in a row against Auburn and extended their overall win streak to 22 straight games (that has nothing to do with the story, I just don’t want Lauren to forget about it). We came back to the Lakehouse to hang out and wind down after the game, and slowly but surely, more and more people began to fill in and occupy the spots on the porch. Eventually, a group of girls came walking up the street and made their way into the crowd of people. I didn’t recognize any of them, but safely assumed they were fellow Auburn Chi Os and close friends of Lydia and Kathleen. With all the chairs taken, one little straggler had to make herself a seat on the ground next to the fire pit. I took note of this, and decided to offer up my seat for her. The first time around, Lauren declined, but I’m stubborn, so I asked again, eventually landing a yes. We sat and talked for hours that night, getting to know one another’s background, swapping college stories, and talking about what we wanted life to look like post-college. That weekend eventually came to a close and I left Auburn thinking I’d likely never see her again.

(the night we met pictured above)

However, a few weeks later, my friend James and I were eating at Waffle House when he convinced me to join him in traveling back to Auburn that weekend. I had a big accounting test the following Monday and desperately needed to study, but the fear of Lauren always being “the one that got away” was too great to ignore, so that weekend I skipped town and headed back to the plains. (I later scored a 42 on that test, but it seems like that was a pretty good price to pay!) While in Auburn, Lauren and I got to spend more time together and the mutual interest continued to grow, but we weren't quite ready to pull the trigger on dating.

A few weeks after that, I invited her to come to Athens for the Georgia-Ole Miss game, to which she agreed. While in Athens, I took her on our first date: a long walk down Milledge Avenue with a stop at Marker 7 for dinner and mules, which has become a tradition of ours anytime we find ourselves in the Classic City. At this point, one thing had become clear to me: if you’re lucky enough to date a girl like Lauren Skinner, you do it, because the chances of finding another like her are slim to none. With this realization now firmly in mind, I made one more trip across the state line, and on December 12th of 2023, she agreed to start dating me.

Since then, much has happened in our relationship and our individual lives. Lauren graduated from Auburn in May of 2024 and subsequently moved to Atlanta to start the real world. I hung around Athens for one more football season before graduating in December of 2024, then made the move to Atlanta myself. Our relationship grew tremendously as we enjoyed the new reality of living only 20 minutes apart, burning up the road between Brookhaven and Virginia Highlands to see one another almost every day. But our stay in Atlanta was short-lived as Lauren got a job opportunity back in Alabama that we felt the Lord was calling her to. After much prayer and counsel, I decided to change career paths and follow Lauren to the neighboring state, where we felt the Lord had much in store.

We made the move over to Birmingham in late April/early May of 2025, Lauren landing in Homewood while I found a place in Mountain Brook. It wasn’t long into my stay in this new town that I decided it was time to move things to the next phase. Over the summer, I saved and prayed and prayed and saved, eventually forming a plan to propose to Lauren in late August. After receiving her father’s blessing, we got engaged on August 24, 2025 while overlooking the eastern Alabama forestlands, and far in the distance, the city we had left to start a new chapter.

We now wait in anticipation and excitement for August 1, 2026, when our story will begin a new chapter, and we sincerely hope you can be there with us to not only celebrate how the Lord has worked in our story, but to also celebrate you, and how you have helped Lauren and I reach this day. We can't wait to see all of you soon!