After being with someone for almost ten years, it feels impossible to tell our love story without writing a book, but we will do our best and start from the beginning.

KATIE’S VERSION

To go ahead and get this out of the way: THANK YOU MADELINE AND ABE. Our story is in great part due to the love Madeline and Abe have for us and each other. Now that that’s out of the way…

After heading up to Mississippi State for freshman year, Madeline made sure to put a bug in my ear about a boy from Philadelphia, MS (her now husband’s best friend) who was also attending MSU. I’d never met him, but I did know he was a Kappa Sig, and I was on the lookout for him at the Kappa Sigma/Phi Mu Halloween mixer of 2014. I had almost given up hope of meeting this mysterious man until, suddenly, I saw him across the room - long-hair, tye-dye cat t-shirt, and John Lennonn glasses. We instantly locked eyes, ran into each other's arms, and never looked back…

Just kidding, that would be way too easy!

We DID meet that night, and we did become friends. William will say he knew I was “something special” from that night on, but I think he may have loved that I would do his homework when he was just “too busy” to get it done. Regardless, life went on, and we occasionally kept in touch. Will took a break from school to work and figure out his career path, and I pursued my engineering degree. I was busy, he was busy. We RARELY kept in touch, but “willcole” (always one-word, per the group message) was always, inexplicably, in the back of my mind.

Fast forward to Fall 2017. Life was great. I was entering my senior year of college, living with my very best friends, and having the time of my life. If you had asked me then, I would have told you life couldn’t possibly get any better… And then Willcole sent me a text. He told me I was on his mind, and he wanted to see how I was doing. He let me know he’d be in Starkville for Bulldog Bash, and we decided to meet up. The night was busy, the District was loud, but we made our way to each other. This time, it really was instant butterflies when we locked eyes… In fact, I was so excited to see him that I didn’t watch where I was going and stepped directly into a hole, temporarily falling down but bouncing back quickly. He politely ignored that fall, and we spent the rest of the night locked in conversation. There was never an awkward silence or lull in the conversation, and I knew I had found something very special.

From that night on, we were by each other’s side whenever we had the chance. William was working in Jackson, but he never hesitated to make the trip to Starkville (even if he had to leave at 4am to be back in Jackson the next morning). By the spring semester of 2018, Will decided to enroll at MSU to pursue a degree in Building Construction Science, and our relationship continued to grow. By that point, I knew I had found the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

From there, we continued to support each other in our careers, dreams, and ambitions. Our love survived a move to North Dakota, a pandemic, deaths of loved ones, and the whirlwind that is PA school. Even when separated by distance, we remained steadfast in our love for each other. We both finished school, started our careers, moved to Ocean Springs, and adopted the two most precious mutts in the world, Jack and Georgia.

And eight years after that fateful reunion at Bulldog Bash, William proposed right where it all started - Starkville, MS. And what an easy “yes” it was!

Thank you to everyone who has had a part in our relationship and our story. We are so blessed to have the most incredible family and friends in the world, and we cannot wait to celebrate with y’all on September 26, 2026!

WILL’S VERSION

When we reconnected in 2017, Katherine was in her junior year at Mississippi State University while I was taking time off from school to work with Yates Construction in Jackson, MS. Shortly after starting work in Jackson, I was at a party one night and one of my best friends, Abe, was snapchatting his girlfriend, Madeline. (They are married now). Madeline and Katie have always been best friends, so I asked Madeline to please tell Katherine that I wanted to talk to her. And just like that, the rest is history. We started talking, and I started traveling to Starkville most weekends to spend time with Katherine every chance I could get. I did not care if it was on a Tuesday night and I had to be back at work at 5AM, I would still make the trip. I also did not care at the time if it meant me showing up late to work because I loved spending every minute I could with Katherine. By the way, this happened quite a lot. After a while, Katherine convinced me to go back to school (she thought I was going back to pursue my degree but really it was just so I could hang out with her every day) and, coincidentally, my boss thought it was time for me to do the same.

When I went back to school, I wound up spending so much time with Katherine that I learned to love school. I eventually convinced Katie to be my girlfriend, and she introduced me to her parents, on Christmas, in front of her entire family! The only thing more nerve-wrecking than meeting her parents on Christmas was telling her dad that we were leaving for a weekend trip to New Orleans to see a Pelicans game the next day.

We helped each other through school and later graduated and started our life together: Beach trips, ski trips, family vacations, long distance relationships, hardships with the loss of my grandparents & my cousin, COVID, quarantine, North Dakota, PA School… Katherine and I have been together through it all. I can honestly say that asking Katherine to marry me was the easy part, with the exception of me being so nervous when I actually did! I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Katie after the first year we were together when we were walking back from the District bars and I first told her I loved her.

We are now living in Ocean Springs, MS with our two amazing dogs (Jack & Georgia), practicing medicine and building roads & bridges - just what we always dreamed of doing. Katherine is my person and I could not imagine spending my life with anyone else. I am so happy that she is letting me spend the rest of my life with her. I love you so much Katherine.