Lake Martin’s Mary Grace Staples McDonald met her husband, Ross, on the last day of her freshman year at the University of South Alabama. They spent the next few months getting to know each other over long distance, and by late summer, McDonald worked up the courage to invite him up for a weekend at her parents’ lake house in Dadeville. 

“Since the first time we met was very brief, it felt kind of weird meeting him again for the first time with my parents, so I had him meet just me at Oskar’s, and we had our very first date over cheeseballs,” McDonald said. “We had a great weekend boating around the lake and hiking Smith Mountain. Ross even jumped off Chimney Rock with some of my friends. I think he was trying to show off for me.”