How We Met
It started as most love stories do — at a blackjack table at O’Shea’s Casino at 1am on Halloween…
Kara, a fresh 21-year-old, had gone to Las Vegas with her roommates for the TCU/UNLV game that weekend. After the game on Saturday night, Kara met up with a few other friends as they bar-hopped down the Strip. Eventually, through meeting up with other groups of friends, she ended up at O’Shea’s Casino.
Chris was in Las Vegas with friends as well “for the game” (even though they didn’t go). As Chris does, he was blackjack table-hopping down the Las Vegas Strip when he ended up at O’Shea’s Casino.
He was playing at O’Shea’s when some girl he didn’t know came and sat down next to him. She asked for his help in playing, as this weekend was her first time ever gambling. Chris confidently said yes — then proceeded to help Kara lose $200 (Kara has learned over the years that if you want to win, don’t ask Chris for help). The night was spent hanging out with each other and their friends. When Kara finally left to go back to the hotel, she couldn’t stop thinking about how this guy made her lose so much money, but that he was still pretty cute.
Later that day — after both ignoring each other in the airport — it was time to board the plane. Kara was stuck in a middle seat, which she was not happy about, but given her lack of sleep, she assumed she would just sleep the entire flight. As she was sitting down next to a nice man at the window, she heard a familiar voice telling the man that he was in the wrong seat. Anyone who knows Chris knows that 99.9% of the time he would have just sat in the man’s original seat. But not this time. Unfortunately for everyone around them, Kara and Chris spent the entire flight talking and getting to know each other. At the end of the flight, they said goodbye and parted ways.
Kara just couldn’t stop thinking about this guy — even though he hadn’t asked for her number yet, she knew a guy with that much Taylor Swift music was meant for her. Not wanting to seem too eager, Kara waited a solid 24 hours before friending him on Facebook and writing on his wall. From there, all it took was one Facebook message conversation about the Civil War, and BAM — the rest is history.
The Proposal
On most Saturdays during the school year, you can find Kara and Chris at TCU cheering on their beloved Horned Frogs in football, basketball, or baseball. However, this was June 15th, a Friday in the summer when not much was going on at campus. Chris had told Kara they were going to cook out at his brother’s house since his parents were in town, but that he wanted to go fly his drone in the campus commons. Kara had asked multiple times if they were going anywhere else, because she wanted to wear leggings and a T-shirt.
Driving to Fort Worth during rush hour on a Friday is one of Kara’s least favorite activities, but on this particular Friday, she was in an exceptionally good mood! As they were crossing the street from parking, a large orientation group was walking down the sidewalk — after a moment of panic, they thankfully walked into the student center. They walked over to Frog Fountain, Chris got the drone out, and began flying it. He then gave Kara a book that highlighted all the great memories they had shared over the past eight years. Right as she got to the end of the book, he got down on one knee. When she turned to the last page and read “Will you marry me?”, he was kneeling there with the ring.