By Cole Gee | Staff Writer
Wimberly senior Macey Guynes has gone on many dates with Waco graduate Brandon Rowe during the four years they’ve been together. However, the date that made the couple both realize they were the ones for each another didn’t exactly have a strong start.
Rowe texted her late in the evening to see if she wanted to join him for a quick date at IHOP. Guynes wasn’t hungry at the time, but still wanted to see Rowe, so she agreed.
While driving to the restaurant together, Rowe jokingly admits he scraped his wheels on a curb pretty hard. He knew he had to stay calm because they had only been on a couple dates at this point, and he didn’t want to freak Guynes out.
“For me, it was a big deal, but I had to contain it and she didn’t care that it was embarrassing,” Rowe said. “We didn’t know each other at the time crazy well, but we were getting to know each other and just the fact that she didn’t even really care was a big deal for me because she was pretty forgiving and pretty sweet.”
Knowing Guynes wasn’t hungry, Rowe still ordered a full breakfast platter and let her have all of his bacon so she could still eat.
“He ordered a full meal and then just gave me all of the bacon from his plate,” Guynes said. “I thought that was really sweet because I was like, ‘I love bacon. So if you’re giving it to me, that means a lot.’ We just drove around and like talked for a really long time. So I really liked that day, I thought it was sweet.”
She said that if she had to describe their relationship in a few words, it would be “food-driven.” Cooking has always been a skill to her, but to Guynes “the feeling of cooking for someone you love is simply indescribable.”
“I enjoy cooking, and that’s kind of something that I’ve discovered just through our relationship,” Guynes said. I always knew that I liked to cook, but like cooking for another person and just having them judge your meals is something that I look forward to.”
Fast forward years later, and Rowe’s planned engagement proposal was just as sweet as those IHOP pancakes. After asking her parents for permission, he booked a dinner reservation at a French soufflé restaurant they previously had an anniversary date at. He had written a letter expressing his love for her and asked the staff to bring it out to them on a platter when they ordered desserts, he said.
“I just let her read it and then asked her to be my wife,” he said. “It was really cool because they brought us free champagne so it was just kind of an experience in itself.”
Planning an entire engagement during college is no easy task, and it can be even harder when it’s long distance, but the four years they’ve been together have given the couple the experience to make it through, Guynes said.
“I think you just need to have those experiences while you’re dating first so that you know that you’re able to overcome them, and then to also have someone who supports your future and your goals,” Guynes said.
If they had to give advice for any couple on campus planning their own engagement on campus, it’s to start planning early and to be as detailed as possible.
“As far as planning for an engagement … one thing that’s been a blessing is she’s a planner,” Rowe said. “She made a whole spreadsheet, and I think that if people are trying to balance wedding planning while being in school, I think that a spreadsheet helps.”
Their ceremony is going to be held sometime in October, but Guynes said she would’ve “married him in a Chick-fil-A” as long as they were together. She said they always try and push one another to be brave and to go for their dreams.
As they both prepare to move back to Guynes’ hometown after she graduates in May, they’ll be encouraging one another the entire way, she said.
“I want to go to PA school, and that was one thing from the very beginning that he knew, and he’s never once discouraged me or offered a different option that would be easier,” Guynes said. “He’s always been very supportive of that. Then vice versa, he just graduated, but he wants to go back to flight school, and I’m like, ‘Go for it.'”
