Joseph's Story:

It all started with an online crush… about 6 years ago, a friend of mine shared a gorgeous piece of artwork on her Instagram story. I clicked on the page and it led me to the artist of this stunning piece. And that artist… was… you guessed it! Cassie King. THE Cassie King. Immediately I was crushin on her pretty hard but saw she was in a relationship and I was livin the dude ranch life and travelin all over in off seasons so there was nothing there to pursue at the time. But as years passed, we would comment on each other’s stories and chat casually here and there and really fed off of and admired one another’s artistic sides. And one time I drunk invited her to hangout with me at 5 AM while I was living hours away on a ranch. Naturally.

I had hopped off of social media for a while and had some pretty life changing events that led me back to the treasure valley, which is something that I had never wanted to do. But about a month and a half after moving back home, I was swimming with my friends Piko n TJ out on the boise river off of warm springs Ave and as we were walking back to the car I had the thought come into my head clear as day “I think Cassie King lives in Boise, I should message her” and right then I grabbed my phone and shot her a message seeing if she was in the area and wanted to hangout. I was too eager to message her that I hadn’t even bothered to look and see if she had ditched the dude she was with years before or not before sending the message. And lucky for me, she had! We had planned to hangout in a couple of weeks and Cassie didn’t wanna talk too too much before hanging out so that we actually had stuff to talk about in person, but I kept finding little ways of sneaking in conversation in that time and I don’t think we went more than a day without talking. When we FINALLY hung out, I just had this natural draw to Cassie. We went rock hounding out in the Owhyee mountains and we got our nervous jitters out on the car ride there thankfully and would stop hounding to hug each other randomly throughout the night hounding in the desert. After picking up more than enough agates for our first hound together, I played my guitar and Cassie danced under the most perfect desert sunset. It was a magical night and I had such a hard time sleeping that night when I got home from just riding this crazy high of feeling so free with the most beautiful woman inside and out that I had ever met. It literally felt like I was living a dream and I didn’t want it to end… and it never did. Cassie and I began to adventure together and camp every weekend the first summer we spent time together and the rest is history. From the first time we spent time together, I knew I wanted to be with Cassie. I tried to play it cool and not freak her out with how excited I was every time I got to see her and I pretended that I was afraid of getting in an actual relationship. But days rolled into weeks, and months, and years and Cassie and I fell more and more in love with every season. I proposed to Cassie in November of last year in the little farm house we currently live in, on the farm that we work at. I’ve never been so nervous in my life even though I was fairly confident she was gonna say yes haha. Cassie has changed my life in all the best ways and I just absolutely adore her and love who she is to the core. I never knew that this level of love was a feeling that existed until I met Cassie and fell in love with her. I love our story so damn much and I am beyond excited for the next chapter of our lives: Marriage babyyyyy!!!

Cassie's Story:

March of 2022 I took a trip to Forks, WA with my best friend Kristine where we stayed in a little motel near the rainforest. At some point during the night, we both began talking about our dream men we wanted to be with. I told her I wanted a guy who was wild. A guy who was artistic-perhaps a musician- with shoulder length brown hair. A guy who was adventurous, funny, someone who would be my best friend. I told her I had a feeling he was living either in Montana or Colorado being a cowboy. I wanted a guy who was kind to me, someone who showed his love and held respect for me. A guy who was genuinely kind-hearted to all those in his life. (You wouldn't believe it, but I actually was not thinking of Joseph as I was listing all of these qualities). We went on for 3 hours, so I won't type out everything I said, but when Joseph messaged me in June of 2022, I couldn't believe this "dream guy" I had manifested was actually now in my life.

I had been friends with Joseph online for years but never really talked to him, except the occasional Instagram story response to a video of him playing music and singing. Little did he know, his music always inspired my paintings.

Our first date was rockhounding agates out in the Owyhee desert and as the day came to an end, he played some songs while I danced barefoot under the most beautiful sunset that stretched across the entire sky. A dream come true for us both. I was hooked.

However, it wasn't all rainbows and sunshine. I had lost my only sibling, my younger brother, just 9 months prior to meeting Joseph and I was struggling to get through life. It may be cliche to say, but Joseph saved me in a way. He put "fun" back into my life. He reconnected me to my wild, to myself. We spent summer nights under the full desert moon, branding each other with our initials on our fifth date, howling and running through the mountains picking wildflowers, sleeping in a tent off the side of highways or directly under the stars on a foam pad. I would drive and he would sing and play songs on his guitar as we flew down highways through evergreens to reach a cove on the coast of California or the red rocks of Utah, stopping to make roadside wildflower bouquets along the way. I had never felt so free.

Joseph was so patient as I worked through my grief and always gave me a safe, soft landing in his arms. His acceptance to love me where I was, exactly how I was, allowed me to stare life directly in the face and realize that sometimes things happen that will never be understood or explained, good and bad. The worst thing had happened to me, but the best thing to happen to me was right next to me staring up at the stars, holding me and twirling me and laughing with me and loving me. I will never understand how I got so lucky to love and be loved by Joseph. My heart has never felt this safe to love and my soul has never felt this free to be loved as my true self. I am forever grateful and in awe of his emotional awareness, his humor, his kindness, his spontaneity, his wild, his love for adventure, his love for his family and friends, his talent, his creativity, and...let's all admit it...his great looks :)

I cannot wait to marry Joseph, my best friend, my howdy partner, and I cannot WAIT for the adventures that lie ahead for us as husband and wife <3