Katie & Joe’s Engagement Session

Katie: - Joe and I met while we were both attending Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA studying Civil Engineering. It was 2007, Joe was a graduate student, and I was a junior. Even though we were in the same program, and it was pretty small, we actually did not meet in classes. I played on the womens club softball team, and our club President, who was also in Civil Engineering, knew Joe asked him and another friend, Nick, to help out and coach our team.

Katie: - Joe, Nick and I would occasionally go to a movie and dinner after practice or on the weekend. It was fun, ya know, just 3 friends hanging out. Then one time, the three of us went to a movie, and were going to dinner afterwards, but somehow it ended up just being Joe and I... I started to get a little suspicious. Joe asked a lot about me, and was very attentive and interested in everything I had to say. Afterwards when I went home, I looked in the mirror and wide-eyed said: "I think I just went on a date! Ahhhhhhhhh!"

Katie: - During Spring Carnival in April that year, Joe took me to Washington DC for the day, just because I said I had never been there. I was amazed that he offered to drive for 4 hours, show me monuments and museums all day, and drive another 4 hours back just because I mentioned I wanted to go someday. Aaaaaannnnnnd thats when I finally admitted that we were probably dating! Haha!

Katie: - After that, Joe graduated and moved down to Texas. I still had a year and a half of school in Pittsburgh, so we did the long distance thing until I graduated and found a job in Texas too. We really enjoy being in the same city!

Joe: - It took me a while to actually set a date to propose to Katie. I was initially planning to propose to her the weekend after the new year after she visited her family for Christmas, but I thought it would be awesome to pop the BIG question before she left so that she could celebrate with her family while she went to Montana.

Joe: - So I got the date set, but I had no clue where to propose. At the Dallas Arboretum? No, too many people did it there. Somewhere on a mountain? No, this is Dallas, there are no mountains. Maybe take her on a plane ride or hot air balloon? No, I was too afraid that Katie would drop the ring. But there was this park where Katie trained for her half-marathon last Fall called White Rock Lake, and it had a really cool waterfall/dam area that we ran by. So I thought it would be an awesome place to take her and propose to her there.

Joe: - The day arrived, Saturday, December 17th. I had the day planned and had a few of our friends to meet us there to take pictures when I got down on my knee. I took her to the Y.O. Steakhouse for lunch, and afterwards I suggested we take a walk at White Rock Lake.

Joe: - We started to walk up a hill towards the other side of the waterfall and I see that my friends had no where to hide! But....luckily our friends (Minh, Steph, Mel) were pretty slick, so they started to act like they were tourists taking pictures facing opposite of the waterfall. I quickly suggested to Katie that we walk towards the waterfall (away from our friends) and had our backs to them. The time came and I started to get butterflies in my stomach. I did not know what to say or how to start it!!

Joe: - I asked Katie if I could pray for us. I started praying thanking God for bringing Katie into my life, and how awesome God is for me to be able to share life her. Knowing that God answers prayers, I asked God to answer my prayer and have Katie say "Yes". At that moment, she opened her eyes to ask me what that meant, and when she did I got down on my knee and asked her to marry me! I was on my knee for a while cause it took her a while to say "yes", but she finally did.