Our story together began at Milton High School, where a deep friendship grew and continued to flourish throughout high school and college. Of course, after school, career paths take everyone in different directions, but we always kept up on social media and whenever back in town to attend a Braves or Falcons game! A few years had gone by and on a wintery Friday, Nicole was skiing in Vail with one of her best friends, Mrs. Tara Savage, when Taylor noticed Nicole's Instagram story and saw she was visiting for the U.S. Burton Open. Taylor immediately reached out to her, “why didn't you tell me you were in town for a ski trip!?” To which Nicole replied, “you live in Georgia, what are you talking about?” Taylor told her his story of moving to Colorado a few months back and after a quick conversation, he was on his way to the mountains, “see you in two hours!” That weekend changed things for the both of us. Immediately we could both tell that something more than just a longtime friendship was bubbling up to the surface. Nicole remembers running outside and calling her maid of honor, Miss Catherine Wardach, saying "You’ll never guess who’s here in Vail with me… Taylor Stubbs! And dang he looks good!”

That weekend was truly amazing... We snowboarded every day and continued to grow closer and closer. From shredding the slopes, to late night strolls through Lionshead Village, the tension was becoming palpable. Nicole had something that came up with work and needed to fly out a day early back to Atlanta. With her friends still in Vail she was stuck without a way back down to Denver, luckily, Taylor kindly volunteered to drive her back to the city as he was picking up his apartment keys that day. “Hey! I just have to pick these up then I can drop you off at the airport!” Taylor and Nicole left early that Sunday with time to spare and ended up spending the day walking all over Denver, arm-in-arm. Dropping her off later at the airport was bittersweet for the both of them… Was this just longtime friends reuniting and remembering the younger days? Or, had a new flame ignited, that both could not ignore.

After returning to Georgia, Nicole and Taylor began talking constantly. It was like a high school crush all over again, texting all day and talking for hours on the phone at night. Taylor ended up flying to Nicole to spend July 4th with her family on the lake and after a long holiday weekend, they were both head over heels. For the next two months, they both flew back and forth between Colorado and Georgia to visit each other, never spending more than 10 days apart.

In August of 2020, Nicole listed her horse farm in Georgia for sale and began the adventure of moving to Colorado as she had been planning for quite some time now. Dirk, Nicole’s father, was elated when Taylor offered to drive her Uhaul cross-country and get her all set up in a new state. Thus, two people’s individual journey’s became one.

Two weeks later Taylor moved in, and the rest is history. They spent the next three years traveling all over the mountains and doing anything and everything outdoors. Endless camping trips, UTVing, mountain biking and of course, snowboarding throughout the winters! They found themselves in each other.

In February of 2023, Taylor took Nicole back to the spot where they met up in Vail 3 years prior on the ski run called Lost Boy. As they turned the corner Nicole saw a bed of roses in the shape of a heart laying in the snow, she quickly remarked, “awww babe, look, someone is proposing!” Taylor had stopped to, “fix” the GoPro on his helmet and started walking into the bed of roses. Nicole freaked, “what are you doing? You’re going to ruin someone's proposal, get out of the heart!” Taylor kindly looked at her and said, “Nicole will you please come over here.” Nicole, suddenly realizing what was happening, watched Taylor Andrew Stubbs get down on one knee and ask Kathryn Nicole van Renesse to be his forever.