Proposal | Nashville, Tennessee
‘Tis the season of my closest friends getting engaged, and these two hold a special place in my heart because I was available to take their proposal photos so lemme tell you alllll the details 🙂
First, let me tell you about the two of these hooligans. I actually met Cole first, through The Navigators, a campus ministry at Vanderbilt. He always seemed to be a sweet guy, though not super talkative with me, and we had a lot of mutual friends (though get him talking about sports >>>). For some reason, I always wanted to see this man smile — like BIG time smile.
Sooo in walks Andrea. Honestly, my first impression of Andrea was not the greatest (though also not the worst). I was entering in as President of Phi Lamb (a sorority) and she was going to be the secretary — but it was a crazy scenario. She had only been in the sorority for one semester, and I had stepped out of the sorority for a year — so I had absolutely no idea who she was or who a lot of the members were. I was terrified that she wouldn’t respect me, that we wouldn’t get along well, and that the year would be an absolute mess (fyi, it wasn’t). Nationals and a few friends told me to watch Andrea carefully and to make sure she knew what she was doing, because as we all know, freshmen usually overcommit. 😅🤣 Well, consider all my stereotypes very wrong.
Andrea quickly became one of my favorite people. She’s outspoken, hilarious, stunning, gracious, encouraging, hard working, talented, and quickly surprised me with her wit, ideas, and love for Jesus. She excelled at being our secretary, and we quickly became very close. I learned so much from her — how to be more spontaneous, how to break out of my shell, how to love and encourage those around me, and how to stand up for what I believe in, and we bonded over our need to organize everything and love others well. This woman is full of integrity, grace, poise, and really does it all. She quickly became one of my right hand women (along with the rest of the officer core I LOVE Y’ALL SO MUCH. Wow, we went through a LOT together).
Soooo one day, Andrea and I were chilling in DNR (#iykyk) at different tables and I watch as Cole and Andrea start a conversation. I didn’t really pay any attention — I mean people talk all the time in there — but one very important and huge thing caught my eye. Cole was smiling. Like SMILING. Like big ole grin, couldn’t hide it and it was the most precious thing in the world. I was SHOOK and that was the moment when I knew that one day he would be getting on one knee for this woman.
They quickly started dating and then COVID erupted across the world. We all went our separate ways, but of course I stayed in contact. I did a Facetime Session with Cole and Andrea (literally SO FUN haha) and these two got to know each other more and more and meet each other’s families. When the school year started back up, Andrea called me and asked me to disciple her (she was the new President of Phi Lamb 🥺🥺 my little mini-me, and you are asked to have a discipler as an officer member) and of course I said YES. This led to many more Chick Fil A and Sonic dates, and hearing more and more of Andrea’s heart, her victories and struggles, and about the man that Cole Conner is. I can now tell you that Cole is genuinely one of the kindest, most selfless, humble, talented, generous, and incredibly wonderful men that I’ve ever known. Like seriously. He honors and respects my sweet friend in so many ways, and I’ve told Andrea this but I’ll say it again: I have no idea who married up — they’re both top tier in every way.
It’s been an honor to have a front row seat to their relationship, to pray over every step of their relationship, and to watch Cole get down on one knee in his backyard and ask Andrea to marry him. I LITERALLY CANNOT WAIT FOR THE CONNORS!! MY HEART IS SO FULL.
Okay, so after that excessively long intro, scroll through these photos and enjoy the PARTAY we had!! Cheers to future Mr. and Mrs. Connor! I love you guys so much 🙂
