ENGAGEMENT STORY | Wedding Website

OUR ENGAGEMENT STORY

We both circled the date December 22nd on our calendars from the moment we started dating because that’s when the Carolina Panthers would make the trip to Indianapolis for a week 16 game verse the Colts. It seemed like the perfect opportunity for our parents to meet and spend a weekend together.

However, Parks had a slightly different plan for the weekend. Here’s our engagement story from each of our points of view:

Parks

For Caroline, this all started on December 21…but for me, backtrack all the way to October 9 when I went to talk to her parents. I flew home to Mississippi for my sister's wedding, but took a little detour through Anderson, SC on the way. I told her I had late meetings and even went as far as to turn my Location Services on my phone off, going completely dark. (Which makes navigating unknown territory a little difficult).

Because this was the most significant event in my life and we tell each other everything, I had an urge to want to tell her what I was doing and how I was feeling, but obviously I couldn’t. So, I started to record videos.. just talking to her and telling her what I was doing at that moment and what day it was. At the time I had no idea what I was going to do with these..that idea would come later.

Once I talked to her parents, the next step was finding the perfect diamond, something I knew absolutely nothing about (Which made playing dumb about it very easy for me). I sought advice and direction from some of my friends who had done it before to get me started, and talked with Caroline's best friends Presley about what she liked. I even made a Pinterest account so she could share pictures of rings Caroline like with me (Man…the things we will do for love).

Over the next several weeks I looked at many different diamonds, learned all about the 4 C’s, and finally found the perfect stone! I ended up choosing the very first one I looked at. I kept getting drawn back to it, and once I had exhausted all options I knew that was the one.

My next step…the plan. I wanted to create a moment for her that would be special and a great memory for the rest of our lives. Because family is one of the most important things to both of us, I decided to involve all of the most important people in our lives. While this was great, it also brought on a lot of moving parts that had to come together to make the moment happen!

Once I started planning, I knew the weekend our families were already planning on coming to Indianapolis for the game would be a great opportunity. As I talked to each family member and friend, I asked them if they would be available that weekend and it worked out for just about the whole group! Here was the tricky part: successfully getting a group of 16 people who had never met and that didn't know Indy very well to go by themselves to 5 different locations at a very specific time! It’s a good thing we have families and friends who are go-getters, because I definitely couldn’t have done it without them.

The story of how we met and got to know each other in Indianapolis is special, so I wanted to try to recreate that for her while also sharing that story with our families and friends. When I talked to everybody, I told them where they were going to be and why that location was significant for us. Along the whole process, I started recording videos just telling her what I was doing at each step of the way not knowing exactly what I was going to do with them. It seemed appropriate to send them to her as she was going from place to place to fill in the blanks on what had been going on for the last couple of months.

A lot of people asked me what I was going to say and if I was going to write it down or just have it in my head..and I knew I wanted it to come from the heart so I didn’t want to write it down. But in the craziness of the day I really didn’t get to fully plan out exactly what I wanted to say, just had thoughts in my head of what I wanted to tell her. When she came around that corner, every thought I had completely left me and everything I said was completely in the moment and from the heart. Seeing my fiancé overwhelmed with joy and happiness is a feeling I’m not sure I have the words to describe, and I’m so lucky to live this life with her!

Caroline

So many people have asked, “did you know this was coming??” and truthfully, no! I had thought about the possibility, but I never let myself get too caught up in the thought of Parks asking me to marry him this particular weekend. With his football schedule we had always agreed that we would wait until after the season to get engaged and I never wanted to pressure him into any other timeline. He had also done an amazing job making me think he didn’t even know how to buy a ring much less bought one and had everything planned! I was in complete shock and continue to think of little nuances from this entire experience that went completely over my head!

The proposal started at a place we have both spent a lot of time at: The Colts Complex

His sister, Erin, and I went to pick him up from work on Saturday. We were sitting in the parking lot at the complex waiting for him to finish up when a security guard approached the car (I thought we did something wrong!). He handed me an envelope and walked back to his car without saying much other than, “this is for you”. I asked his sister if she knew what this was she very calmly said, “nope”. Inside the envelope was a photo of me in the Colts television studio from when I worked there and hand-written on the back was a note telling me to go to where this photo was taken. The shock and surprise started to set in. I knew something was definitely happening, but still couldn’t bring myself to think he was actually going to propose! We had always agreed on after the season!! I even told his sister, “he better not be surprising me with anything other than a proposal!! I can’t handle this.” Kuddos for Erin for not saying a thing!

Once I got to the studio, my parents were sitting on the very same couch where I had my job interview in 2016. I knew they were coming, just not that early in the day! I thought they were arriving just in time for dinner Saturday night. We shared a sweet conversation about how much Indianapolis and the Colts mean to me and after some stalling (apparently, I was 15 minutes earlier than everyone had planned!!) they handed me my next envelope.

In all there were 6 envelopes with five different photos that sent me to significant locations around the city (the last one was a soup label, but I’ll get to that later) At each location there was a different group of family members or friends.

Colts Complex // my parents

His house // his parents

The Eagle (restaurant) // my brother, sister-in-law, and nieces

The Dugout (favorite local bar) // his brothers and brother-in-law

Hotel Tango (favorite distillery) // Presley and Julia (and Paige via facetime!)

During the drive from his house to The Eagle, he sent me videos dating back to October 9th when he made the trip from Indianapolis to my parent’s house to ask them for their blessing. As you can imagine, I was a mess watching them! He took videos all throughout the process: asking my parents, looking at diamonds, etc. and with every video I was able to piece together the puzzle he had been working on for month. By the time I got to the Eagle, I had allowed what was happening to settle in and just tried to take in every single word and moment that was coming.

The final location, Hotel Tango, is where we had some of our best conversations, played cards, watched football film (that one time), and just enjoyed sitting for hours and talking when I lived in Indianapolis. Most of our time spent here was as friends, but it grew into such a special place for our relationship. When I arrived there on this particular Saturday, my two best friends Presley and Julia hugged me quickly and sent me around the big chimney that is the center piece of the distillery where Parks was standing there looking as handsome and calm as ever.

For a few minutes it felt like it was only me and him in the room. I wish I could remember every word he said, but I do know he took my hand, got on one knee, and asked me to marry him! I immediately started crying and said yes!

All of our family and friends started to celebrate with cheers, photos, hugs, and tears! We kicked off the rest of the night with a champagne toast and shared stories about how crazy the last two months had been for everyone and how in the absolute dark I had been!! Needless to say, Parks pulled off the most perfect proposal ever and I feel incredibly lucky to be his fiancé (which is so fun to say!!)

Funny moments too good not to share...

Caroline threw a curve ball in the plans when she said she needed to go by the Panthers team hotel before they arrived. Parks mother Tammi quickly asked, “where are you going??” – little did Caroline know why she was so curious! Erin very calmly said she would join when Caroline asked if anyone wanted to go with her (Erin joining Caroline to Pick up Parks was a huge piece of the plan!). Although, Caroline did steal Sam’s opportunity to say the line: “I’ll stay here” and for that she is very sorry!!
Parks' and Caroline's friend Amber Derrow won the MVP for showing up in an amazing disguise to photograph the entire day.
Parks and Caroline share location services, so during the entire 3 month stretch, he had to keep turning off his location services and navigate without GPS on his phone during big moments – like asking my parents for their blessing! Putting those Eagle Scout skills to the test!
Parks did a walk-thru with one of Caroline's best friends Julia at Hotel Tango the week before just to make sure it went as planned! Very coach like!
Cooper got kicked out of the Dugout for not being 21 and had to wait for Caroline outside - sorry Coop!