Some love stories begin with a first date. Ours began years before we ever realized we were writing one.

Our story has always had a little bit of Auburn woven through it.

We both attended Auburn University, and although we never dated in college, our paths crossed from time to time. Fred remembers seeing Tara around campus and at football games when she was an Auburn Tigerette—and, as he tells the story, he definitely noticed her. Tara knew Fred in passing, but after college, life took us in different directions.

Then came a simple Facebook message.

On July 4, 2016, Fred sent Tara a casual “hello.” She replied, they exchanged a few words…and that was pretty much it.

Apparently, Fred was willing to play the long game.

Seven years later, at the beginning of the 2023 Auburn football season, Fred tried again. Knowing Tara was an Auburn season-ticket holder, he invited her to stop by his tailgate.

She didn’t exactly rush over.

Depending on which one of us tells the story, Tara finally appeared at either the second or third tailgate of the season. Fred still jokes that she may have just been tailgate-hopping for free food.

Whatever brought her there, we’re both very glad she showed up.

This time, something clicked.

We began talking, catching up, laughing, and getting to know the people we had become since our Auburn days. What started as a renewed friendship gradually became something neither of us had expected.

And then came the list.

Tara had several projects that needed to be done around her house, and because Fred worked nearby—and happens to be very good at fixing things—he offered to help.

One project became another.

Installations. Repairs. Painting. Minor electrical work. And even repairing the garage door Tara managed to break.

Before long, Fred had probably completed $2,000–$3,000 worth of work around the house. Tara, meanwhile, was becoming increasingly concerned about the bill she assumed was quietly piling up.

Finally, she asked him.

“How much are you charging me for all of this?”

Fred admitted that, yes, he normally charged people for this kind of work.

But not her.

“Don’t worry about it. No charge. I just like helping you.”

And that was the moment Tara thought:

Oh. He really likes me.

Looking back, Fred describes it a little differently:

“I think I had a honey-do list before I became HONEY.”

And he absolutely did.

But those projects gave us something much more valuable than a repaired house. They gave us time.

Fred would work. Tara would feed him—her unofficial form of payment—and we would talk. Hours passed. Days became evenings. The to-do list kept growing, but so did our friendship.

At the time, Tara was working full-time while pursuing her doctorate. Fred saw firsthand the long days that often went straight from her 9-to-5 into hours of graduate school work.

So he started finding reasons to get her away from it.

“Come on. You need a break.”

At first, they were simply outings between friends—a chance for Tara to step away from school, relax, laugh, and enjoy herself.

But somewhere between the Auburn tailgates, home projects, meals, conversations, and much-needed study breaks, friendship began turning into something else.

Fred showed Tara that he was kind, loving, dependable, and—perhaps most importantly—consistent.

And Tara discovered that she genuinely loved having him around.

In October 2023, while celebrating with some of Fred’s former teammates at a cigar lounge in Auburn, we shared what Fred still remembers as our first kiss. It wasn't dramatic or extravagant. In his words, it was simply “perfect for the time being.”

After that, there was no going backward.

By Tara’s birthday that November, we were officially a couple.

The days became weeks, the weeks became months, and eventually we were inseparable.

Our relationship grew beyond the two of us. Fred met Tara’s family through dinners, church, graduations, and trips to Alabama. When Tara met Fred’s mother, the two connected almost immediately—as though they had known each other much longer.

Our lives began fitting together naturally.

There were Auburn games and bowl games, trips to Florida and Alabama, fish fries, date nights—although Tara will tell you there can always be more date nights—and adventures outside the country.

Somewhere along the way, we stopped simply dating and started building a life.

And then, on November 18, 2025, at 6:30 p.m. in Sandy Springs, Georgia, Fred got down on one knee and asked Tara Johnson to become his wife.

She said YES!

Now, all these years after first crossing paths at Auburn, we are preparing to stand together on November 21, 2026, surrounded by the people we love, and begin our next chapter as husband and wife.

Auburn may have been where our paths first crossed, but timing, friendship, faith, family, laughter, patience—and one very long honey-do list—are what brought us here.

Fred says there isn't a day that goes by without him telling Tara that he loves her.

And perhaps that is the simplest way to describe our story.

It wasn't love at first sight.

It was something better.

It was a love that had time to find us.

And now, after all these years, we finally get to say: