A Bit About Us

About Megan

Megan grew up in the small town of Burley, Idaho where she was the 6th out of 7 children, and the baby girl. Due to having a dad and 5 brothers who love nothing more than to poke fun, she learned quickly how to handle being teased. This turned out to work well in her favor, as Austin is also a huge tease! 

Before Austin came along, the main love in Megan's life from the age of 3 had always been dance. She grew up in a small studio in Burley doing ballet and jazz, then continued her education in dance at BYU-Idaho. Here she was part of the touring dance team several times, and eventually graduated with her BA in Dance. She then moved down to Salt Lake City, where she was planning on applying to the University of Utah to become IMS certified, and then moving on to acheive her Masters. Then Austin came along and foiled those plans...and she couldn't be happier! Now her other dreams are coming true!

About Austin

Austin was raised in Nampa, Idaho in a family full of brunettes. Being a blonde, it was always joked that he was the milkman's child! Perhaps this is why he learned to be able to dish it out as well as he could take it!

Austin was raised with a love of sports. The Stoddards bleed blue for BYU! There is almost nothing better than a good, successful BYU game! However, Austin's true love lays with baseball. He played baseball and did wrestling growing up, and looks forward to passing that on to his children!

Now Austin is attending BYU-Idaho to get his degree in Exercise Physiology. He is working very hard so that he can get into medical school to become a podiatrist (not to be confused with pediatrics). There is a long, hard road ahead, but Austin is a very motivated, hard working man and will do a fantastic job!

How we met

Two words. Blind date.

Here's how it happened. Austin had been in Kansas for the summer, and was flying back home the first weekend in August. He was supposed to fly in to Boise, but found that it would be much less expensive to fly to Salt Lake instead, where he was having a family reunion that next week anyway. So he flew in, and stayed with his sister and her family. He went to church with them on Sunday, where he happened to meet a girl that Megan knew from a religion class she had taken her freshman year of college (shout out to Shantae...we owe you big time!!). So she decides to set them up on a blind date! First of all, it's kind of a miracle that they both decided to say yes to this rather random blind date. Then they were both pleasantly surprised by the highly enjoyable (not to mention attractive) company! Needless to say, Megan was thrilled when he asked for her number, and then for a second date :)

How we got engaged

Y mountain in Provo will now and forever be a special place to us. That was where we went on our second date, when Austin first held Megan's hand. It was also at the end of that date that they had their first kiss. And it was at the top of Y mountain that they became engaged! So here's the story...(from Megan's perspective)

Austin was taking me to my first college ball game! BYU vs. BSU football! And we had decided that we wanted to hike the Y before the game, to kind of relive our second date. So we were supposed to have started hiking absolutely no later than 3:00, so we could have time afterwards to grab something to eat and make it to the stadium in time for the pre-game. However...things got delayed and we ended up not starting the hike until almost 4:30. So we were running a little behind schedule, and were kind of trying to hurry up the mountain. Unfortunately, I had never been more out of shape in my life and thought I would maybe die on the trail. But with Austin's encouragement, I made it! Although I was slightly regretting our decision to hike to the top of the "Y" instead of only making it to the middle, like last time. But we made it! 

So we sat down on the Y (if you're looking at it, we were on the inside part of the right side), and of course I had to pull out my phone and take pictures of the view and everything, completely oblivious to the fact that Austin had the ring right there in his pocket. Then I put my phone away and just snuggled up to my sweetheart to enjoy the view. Then he started singing to me, one of the sweetest songs ever. "Look Like Her" by Espen Lind. Look it up. Ah. I love it. And I especially love it when he sings it to me! So anyway, he's singing this lovely song to me with his lovely voice, with a big, lovely smile on his face. Then he finishes singing and starts into his little spiel (which is when I'm starting to think..."is he proposing??"), then he turns and pulls the ring box out of his pocket (cue me covering my mouth in shock), opens it up....and the ring falls out!! Of course I have to start laughing while Austin shouts in horror as he sees the ring fall about 10 feet down the Y. But he recovers it quickly, gets down on one knee, and pops the question! Of course I said yes and then kissed him!! Then he looks over and said "Smile for the camera!" This amazing man had planned ahead and gotten one of his friends to hike up there ahead of time to be a sneaky photographer! So we will now always have pictures to remember this wonderful moment of our lives (as well as the part where the ring fell!).

I've heard so many different proposal stories, and I always tried to imagine what mine would be like. I never could really imagine anything in particular...but this was more perfect than I could have ever imagined! Our story is my favorite :)