Engagements: Brandon and Alison

Brandon Dorge and Alison Stokes first met over a bag of Funyuns while at a party hosted by a mutual friend. The two of them joked while sharing the onion-flavored snacks, but by the end of the evening, they really only knew each other’s names.

A year later, Brandon caught Alison’s attention while at a friend’s birthday party. She made her way from the dance floor to talk to the familiar face and after catching up for a few minutes, Brandon reluctantly bought Alison a drink. Later that night, Alison drove home and told he friends she was going to marry that man one day.

Three years later, Brandon has found new ways to impress Alison after the drink incident, but she’s never stopped keeping him on his toes. While enjoying an Eric Church concert this past May, she leaned toward him and yelled over the music, “If you love me, you’ll jump onstage!” He happily obeyed and nailed a perfect air guitar riff before he was taken offstage and forced to spend the evening in their chartered limo. “He truly loves me,” Alison says.

When Brandon started brainstorming ideas to propose to Alison, he knew he wanted to involve the town of Rosebud, Missouri, where her and her family would go antiquing. On July 4, 2015, Brandon made plans to go to Rosebud with Alison and her family but ultimately ended up backing out on the trip. Disappointed, Alison continued on the trip with her family only to stumble upon one of Brandon’s friends.

He was holding a stop sign and walking toward the middle of the street. Slowly, more of their friends joined him creating a roadblock on Highway 50. “Good Timing” by Jake Owen started blaring throughout Rosebud. Alison immediately recognized it as her and Brandon’s song. Frozen in place, she watched as Brandon walked out to the middle of the highway to get down on one knee. The whole town of Rosebud trickled out to watch as Alison exclaimed, “Yes!”

Brandon and Alison have plans to wed on October 8, 2016, at St. Francis Xavier Church in Taos. The couple looks forward to enjoying life’s adventures. They hope to share much more laughter and, of course, many more bags of Funyuns.

Columbia Home Engagement’s are sponsored by Betz Jewelers in Columbia