They both said they would never date another vet student but Hannah says, “If exactly what you’ve been looking for is staring you right in the face, you can’t really walk away from it.” Hannah was in her first, and Tyler in his third, year of intense study in veterinary school when they started having casual dates. Around Valentine’s Day, they both began to consider this as more than just a friendship. Shortly after that, Tyler had shoulder surgery—Hannah was there. Tyler says it hit him, “I really have significant feelings for this girl.”

After a whirlwind of studying, classes and dating, they finally had some uninterrupted time together. When Tyler graduated, they took a two-week trip to Japan. “Everyone thought we would come back from that trip engaged,” Hannah says, “but we didn’t.” 

On her birthday a month later, at Tyler’s family’s ranch, Hannah thought Tyler might propose. But he didn’t. The next day, Tyler prepared a horsepacking trip, and the two rode up into the high country with Tyler’s cousin and cousin’s girlfriend. When they set up camp, Tyler and Hannah walked to the spring for water. Hannah searched for good fishing spots. “I was still looking into the water when Tyler said my name and I turned around to see him on one knee,” Hannah says. He asked if she would marry him. “She asked if I was serious,” Tyler says, “and just about gave me a heart attack before saying, ‘Yes, of course!’”

That night Tyler made a campfire dinner for her—tri-tip, baked potatoes, fresh bread and corn. “We had an amazing night with our friends, just us and the horses and the stars,” Hannah says.

For a month they forgot about school and just enjoyed the time at the ranch. “It was amazing to be together in such a magical place,” Hannah says. “Those are some of the best memories of my life and some of the ones I turn back to when it’s really hard being apart.”

They planned their ranch wedding with Hannah still at school in Washington, and Tyler interning seven hours from the ranch. “We got married on some vacation time that I had scheduled at the beginning of my fourth year, and Tyler had to take a couple of his very precious five or six days off from his first internship,” Hannah says. “We got there, we got married, and we both left.”

On the wedding day, Hannah rode to the ceremony in a horse-drawn carriage. “Stepping off the carriage was like all of the worry fell away,” she says. “I didn’t even know there were other people there because the only thing I saw was him.”

Tyler waited for her on the raised platform under an arch. “They say ‘rendered speechless,’ and that’s a great term. I remember truly being expressionless,” he says. “Immediately following that was just a big swell of pride and happiness.”

In their self-written vows, Tyler said, “I’ll always be there, I’ll be her rock. I’ll be the one she can always come to no matter what.” Hannah’s vows were  “so heartfelt that when I read them to him, I cried the entire time,” Hannah says.

When the ceremony concluded, Hannah exchanged her wedding shoes for cowboy boots. “We walked down the aisle,” Tyler says, “got her on her horse, and I got on mine, and we, as they say, rode off into the sunset.” 

— Margaret Snider