Our Story         Thanks to Tonya and Jonathan's wedding and the parties and showers leading up to it, Jason and Shannon met.  Tonya is one of Shannon’s best friends from college, and Jonathan has been a great friend of Jason since boyhood.  Shannon and Jason were in the wedding party.           Tonya could see a great match could be made as both Shannon and Jason expressed interest in the other to Tonya.  By Tonya and Jonathan’s wedding day (August 5, 2005) Shannon and Jason were dating exclusively -- they knew it was something great right off.  At the time, Jason was stationed in Kingsville training to be a Navy pilot; Shannon had just moved back to Dallas.  So, they decided to have a long-distance relationship: it was close to 500 miles between them.           On October 31, the plane Jason was piloting went down.  A large vulture was ingested by the single jet engine of the training plane shortly after take-off.  Jason and the training officer ejected.  Fortunately, Jason only suffered a broken ankle and minor cuts and bruises.  He spent the next couple of months recuperating at his parent's home in Southlake.  This allowed Shannon and Jason to see each other almost everyday.  When Jason was finally able to return to Kingsville, the separation was harder than ever: the two had fallen in love! With a great deal of effort on both parts, they managed to see each other every four or five weeks over the next six months.  Shannon imagined this would continue for a couple of years.  Jason was mysteriously quiet about the subject of marriage; but he had a quicker timeline in mind.           While in transition from Kingsville to Norfolk, Va. in June 2006, he visited a family jeweler with his mom under the pretext of getting a watch band fixed.  There, he surprised both Mom and the jeweler by asking to see an engagement band for the diamond his grandmother left him.           Shannon and Jason planned a trip for her to come see him in Norfolk in July, 2006.  Two days before she left for Norfolk, Jason called Shannon’s parents in Lewisville to ask for their blessing.  Shannon’s parents gave Jason a whole-hearted blessing; now all he had to do was ask her.           Jason planned to ask the big question the day after Shannon arrived, on Saturday.  However, when Jason mentioned a concert that was in town on Saturday night, Shannon insisted they go, without knowing the plans she was delaying.           So on Sunday, after a day at the beach, Jason arranged for candlelit dinner on the beach at sunset.  In the most perfect setting imaginable, Jason got down on one knee (at first pretending to be getting a closer look at the candles) and asked Shannon to marry him.  She immediately said “yes,” and they quickly started planning for a June wedding.  When they considered more closely Jason's training calendar, they decided to move up the wedding to December, when it was certain he could be on leave for Christmas vacation.