Our Story
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
…is not where this story starts. Instead, our story is set in October 2021 in Irving, TX, featuring a 21 year old Isabel and 26 year old AJ.
AJ had moved to Irving 3 years earlier for a job opportunity (and to save money; living in LA was expensive). Isabel had graduated from college that spring and finally moved out of her parents’ house to her own apartment, also in Irving, for her first corporate job that would eventually require her to be in office.
On October 17, Isabel decided to download a new dating app. She saw AJ’s profile, thought he was cute but wasn’t sure about his goatee, and swiped right regardless. AJ had decided on a whim to pay for a month of premium (“best 14 bucks I’ve ever spent!”), which meant that he immediately saw she liked him and swiped right because he thought she was pretty.
It was a match! Isabel saw that AJ mentioned loving Taco Bell in his bio, so she took the initiative and sent the first message: “What’s your go-to Taco Bell order?”. She knows it now by heart: 3 Crunchy Tacos with a Nachos Bell Grande and a large Dr. Pepper.
They spent the next few days sending messages back and forth, Isabel learning more about AJ’s childhood growing up in Fullerton, CA and AJ learning more about Isabel’s family in Richardson, TX. AJ asked Isabel on their first date for that Saturday, October 23 and she said yes.
AJ picked Isabel up from her apartment, thankfully no goatee in sight. It was one of those few instances where someone looked better in person than on their dating profile. After one of them ordered a hot tea and the other ordered a chocolate milk with their brunch from Black Walnut Cafe (guess who ordered which drink), they went to Hall’s Pumpkin Farm.
Unfortunately, they were too shy to take a photo together, but they had a wonderful time in the corn maze and walking through the flower field.
They made plans to go see the pumpkins at the Dallas Arboretum the next Saturday, October 30, but unfortunately the tickets were sold out. Instead, AJ arrived at Isabel’s apartment complex with a bouquet of flowers to make up for the ones they would be missing that day, and they decided to walk around White Rock Lake. They shared their first kiss and had deeper conversations than before.
A few days later on November 1, Isabel visited AJ’s bachelor pad and got to meet his dogs Bojack and Louie, who are notorious for leaving a mark on the new friends they meet – particularly in the form of some physical scratches thanks to their large paws and uncontained excitement.
He texted her after she left that night saying that he understands if she doesn’t want to see him anymore because of his dogs, but this only made Isabel realize that she really did want to keep seeing him, Bojack’s claws and all.
That weekend, Isabel went to Houston to visit a friend and accidentally dropped her phone in a pond, losing over a year and a half of photos (reminder to sync your phones!) and her only way to contact AJ. She immediately asked her friend if she could use her phone to log onto her Instagram account and message AJ to make sure he knew she wasn’t ghosting him.
They set their fourth date for the next Friday, where AJ visited Isabel’s apartment with one of her favorite meals from Cheddar’s. He asked her to be his girlfriend, and she said yes on 11/12/21, an anniversary that they’ve celebrated for three years.
Now, they’ll have another anniversary to celebrate: 4/5/25!
They celebrated their 1 month of dating anniversary by flying to NYC to see the giant Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center because they found discounted flights. They only spent 23 hours in New York, but they loved seeing the skyline from SUMMIT One Vanderbilt and eating UNO’s Chicago deep dish pizza instead of a New York slice…oops!
For the next year or so, they kept finding amazing deals on flights and stays, traveling everywhere from Las Vegas to New Orleans, visiting friends in Chicago, Austin, and Connecticut, family in Alabama, and even traveling to Corpus Christi and Santa Fe for their birthdays. Each trip was a way to explore more of the country and learn more about each other.
Let’s get back to the timeline, shall we?
They signed a lease to move into a new 2 bedroom apartment in Irving before they had even hit their 6 month anniversary, and they moved in together in July 2022.
Bojack and Louie eventually got used to Isabel being their mom and stopped greeting her with their claws, and Isabel and AJ made a beautiful home together.
But peace would not last for long. Isabel’s mom, her lifelong best friend and the person she looked up to most, passed away in India in October 2022 after battling ovarian cancer for 7 years. Losing her mom was the hardest thing Isabel had ever had to face, but AJ was right by her side the entire time, helping her manage her grief and managing his own for his future mother-in-law, who had already made a profound impact on him in the short time he knew her.
As a result of her mother’s passing, the two of them ended up taking in Callie, the Costian family dog since 2015, and she is the final perfect piece of their household of 5. Isabel and AJ love being dog parents and wouldn’t trade the hair-covered clothing and muddy paws for the world.
They love their dogs so much, in fact, that they hoped to one day be able to give their dogs a nice big backyard to run around in. They were extremely fortunate and found themselves with the opportunity to buy a house the summer of 2023, receiving the keys to their first house on June 30th, 2023.
Isabel and AJ have really enjoyed being homeowners. They’ve installed permanent lights that allow them to change the colors throughout the year, made a wildflower side garden that will only grow bigger each year, and have had a lot of fun scouring Facebook Marketplace for finds that will help turn their house into a home. They have big dreams (like building their own patio and filling each room with furniture) and smaller but just as important ones (like having gutters and ceiling fans, which they’ve learned don’t come with new construction homes).
But one of their biggest dreams has been to have a magical fairytale wedding, surrounded by their loved ones in an enchanted forest (or at least, the closest thing you can get to one in metro DFW). Next will be the story of how they got to this point: Isabel and AJ’s engagement.
They began sharing images of rings with each other in January of 2022, only a couple of months into dating, but they were only joking; one of the rings had an image of Shrek on it, after all. As the months went by, though, they started joking less and researching more seriously.
Isabel knew she wanted an emerald for her engagement ring, as it’s both her birthstone and that shade of bluish-green is her favorite color. AJ mentioned that if he ever did propose, he would need to know her ring size, so on a whim the couple decided to go to Jared to check their ring sizes.
While at the store, Isabel looked at the couple of emerald options they had available, but wasn’t particularly interested in them. The Jared employee who was helping them mentioned that they were having a one-day-only gemstones event in 3 days, where they would have dozens of exclusive gemstone pieces available, including several emerald rings to choose from.
Isabel and AJ made an appointment to come back for the gemstones event, purely out of curiosity (and impeccable timing). When they arrived, Isabel was immediately drawn to one ring: an oval sunburst halo ring with a gorgeous emerald in the center. Neither AJ nor Isabel could stop staring at how it sparkled and gleamed on her hand as she tried it on and did not want to take it off.
Without hesitation, AJ purchased the ring that would help him eventually turn Isabel from his girlfriend to his fiancée.
You may think that now would be the right time to start thinking about where he’d want to propose, but AJ had known the perfect spot as far back as their first date.
When they walked through that flower field at the pumpkin farm on their very first date, Isabel had mentioned how much she loved flowers and how she thought the Dallas Arboretum was one of the most beautiful places in the metroplex. AJ knew that would be the perfect spot to propose, so he planned carefully and meticulously to ensure everything was a success.
AJ did extensive research, looking up every video and photo he could find online of proposals at the Arboretum to find the perfect spot to pop the question. The archway at A Woman’s Garden stood out to him, and after he took a solo trip to the Arboretum to scope it out, he knew he had found the perfect place to propose. He mapped out the route they would take through the gardens, contacted Isabel’s friends and family to coordinate a plan with them, and reached out to Isabel’s father and brother for their blessing, receiving it warmly. When Isabel wasn’t home, AJ would practice getting on his knee and pulling out the ring, preparing what he would say to her, and anxiously awaited for the day to come.
The date was March 25th…He hired a professional photographer (who took most of the photos on this site) under the guise that their photoshoot was for Isabel to use in the custom calendar she’d gift AJ for Christmas. She made a tradition of using pictures they took the previous year to make a calendar for the upcoming year, using photos from each month that align with the months of the calendar. “We didn’t get very good pictures last March, so I wanted to make sure we got some good ones this year!” he proclaimed.
They strolled through the gardens with the photographer in what felt like a dreamlike photo session.
Thousands of beautiful tulips surrounded the couple across the entirety of the garden. The photoshoot progressed along the pathway AJ had carefully planned, and as they got closer his anticipation of the proposal was growing.
While Isabel was looking away and not paying attention, AJ slipped the ring box from his bag into his pocket – the moment was drawing near and he was as nervous as he was excited.
Finally, the photographer asked the couple to stand facing away from each other under the archway. That was his cue! While Isabel was facing away, AJ turned to face her, got on his knee and presented her the ring. When Isabel turned around, she was surprised, confused, and took approximately 10 seconds to process what was going on in front of her, before finally realizing he was asking her to marry him, and she said yes!
Ever since that day, Isabel and AJ have been happily engaged, planning the most important celebration of their lives. They cannot wait for you to be featured at the beginning of the next chapter of their story, titled Mr. & Mrs. Costian-Wheeler. Thank you for not only reading, but being a part of their love story!
~ The End ~