"In a way, music brought Josh and I together. In 2016 I enrolled as a voice student at Conservatory of the Ozarks in Springfield. Josh was a piano and violin teacher at the Conservatory and he often served as my piano accompanist at monthly studio recitals. After finishing high school, I entered the Conservatory’s teacher apprenticeship program and began a fine arts degree at OTC. Over the next couple years I started to develop a crush on Josh as we continued making music together and enjoyed watching our music students develop and perform. Once we were colleagues, I loved seeing Josh help his music students grow and seeing Josh perform in gigs around the area. Finally in 2018 I confided to my friend/coworker about the feelings I had for Josh. Together we planned several fun group hangouts nearly every weekend over the summer...and Josh was always invited. After lots of board games at the Hepburn, desserts at the European Cafe, hookah nights at the Albatross, and countless dinners downtown, the summer was drawing to a close and Josh still hadn’t asked me out. My friends and I were pretty sure Josh liked me back -- but Josh can be really hard to read! Since I still wasn’t sure how Josh felt about me, I decided to sit him down and honestly share my feelings with him. I really had no idea how he would react, and I was nervous that he might not share my attraction. I was hesitant to explain my feelings to Josh because it would be awkward to see each other at work if he wasn’t interested in me romantically. I finally worked up the courage to confront Josh directly about my feelings. If he rejected me, at least I would have closure so I could move on with my life. After we finished practicing together one evening, I told Josh that I had romantic feelings for him. I was so relieved to find out that Josh had feelings for me too. We went on our first official date as a couple a week later on August 10th, 2018. Josh asked me to be his girlfriend that night and on April 6th, 2019 he proposed marriage to me on a beautiful Spring afternoon at Nathanael Greene Park. We are so excited to spend the rest of our lives making music together, building a family together and loving each other more with every passing day. "- Katie (Bride)