Abby & Tyler

We met at a house party in 2019, back when we were both students at Clemson. Abby spotted Tyler across the room and asked a friend who he was. Eventually someone introduced us and we swapped numbers. Abby noticed him first, but Tyler made the first move, and he’d like that on the record.

For our first date, Tyler took Abby to Jazz on the Alley, an outdoor jazz concert in downtown Seneca. He picked her up on his motorcycle, and she hopped right on. By September, we were dating. There wasn’t one big moment when we knew. We just clicked, and life felt easier with each other in it.

A lot of those early dates happened at a whiteboard. Tyler had already made it through the electrical engineering classes Abby was taking, so he spent many evenings explaining circuits while she wondered what she’d gotten herself into.

That’s one of the real whiteboards in the picture, covered in capacitors in series and parallel. It’s not the most romantic photo we have, but it might be one of the most honest. A lot of our relationship was built on nights like that. Tyler drawing the same circuit one more time, and Abby asking why anyone would choose this major on purpose. She passed, by the way.

Three months in, we decided we were ready for a real commitment and adopted Bailey in December 2019. Bailey is a lab mix who hates water, and she was so calm that we figured we could handle a second dog. Then Riley joined us in November 2020 and turned out to be the total opposite. She was a wild child from day one and would swim all day if we didn’t make her take breaks. Neither of them has changed a bit. Two dogs before either of us had a diploma probably wasn’t our most practical decision, but we’d do it again.

Tyler can fix almost anything, and he’s always Abby’s first call when something goes wrong. He likes to say the one thing he can’t fix is people, and Abby is now in medical school working on that part.

Cars have always been his thing. He’s been working on them his whole life, and after seven years of handing him tools, Abby knows far more about cars than she ever planned to. (Exhibit A: replacing a starter, which first meant taking off the intake manifold.) For years Tyler joked that she’d intimidate her next boyfriend. Lucky for him, there won’t be one.

The learning goes both ways, though. Abby rode on Clemson’s equestrian team, and Tyler now knows what a posting trot is and can demonstrate simple and flying lead changes with surprising accuracy.

Along the way we both graduated from Clemson in 2024. Abby finished her master’s in 2025 and started medical school in 2026, and Tyler started his career as a software engineer in cybersecurity. Bailey and Riley have no degrees but remain very supportive.

We also balance each other out. Tyler organizes his closet by color. Abby does not. He’s slowly convinced her that things actually belong in specific places, and when she can’t find something, he always knows exactly where it is. Left to himself, Tyler would never leave his office, so Abby gets him out every once in a while, even if it’s just for ice cream.

Abby loves how smart Tyler is (three engineering degrees, which he’d like you to know) and that he’s never idle. He’s always learning something new or building something, and he started building this website (you should see the admin back-end) the night we got engaged. He treats her well, and he pushes her to work hard in school even on days she’d rather do nothing.

Tyler loves that Abby catches on fast. He says her brain is “spongy,” which is a compliment: he never has to explain something twelve different ways. She remembers every detail of every story he’s ever told her, so when he starts retelling one, she usually jumps in with the parts he left out. He also loves her cooking, and that she puts up with all his quirks.

After seven years, two dogs, five degrees between us and more car repairs than we can count, getting married was the obvious next step.

The proposal was simple. We went to Bruster’s, one of our favorite things to do together. Tyler got a milkshake that was half Peanut Butter Puddles and half coffee. Abby got cheesecake ice cream in a waffle bowl, and the dogs got vanilla with waffle cone pieces. We came home like it was any other night, and then Tyler got down on one knee. He said he knew it wasn’t the most elaborate proposal, but he couldn’t wait any longer. Seven years was long enough. Abby said yes, and we took a minute to soak it in.

Now we’re balancing medical school, Tyler’s job and two dogs, so why not plan a wedding too?