Amanda Jane and Michael Philip Visser Engagement Announcement

Amanda Jane Nix, daughter of Don and Barb Nix of Sioux Falls, SD, has become engaged to Michael Philip Visser, son of Jim and Sharon Herbert of Harrisburg, SD.

Saturday, July 9th 2016

Proposal

Over the course of those 15 years, we dated other people and lived separate lives. He stayed in South Dakota for about ten of those years and then moved to Texas for work. I spent four years at UNL and then a decade in Hollywood, California pursuing my dream of acting and writing. We did randomly see each other sometimes in the summer or over Christmas when I was back home. According to Mike, he always had feelings for me, but I always had a boyfriend. I do remember running into him in my mid-to-late twenties and telling my friend, “I forgot how cute and funny Mike Visser is” But that was all the further it went, because I had a boyfriend. (Maybe Mike was right, after all!)

In 2013, I decided I wanted to move to a new city. I LOVE Los Angeles to this day, but I’ve always had some wanderlust and wanted to explore a new place. In November of that year, I came to Austin, Texas with my family. While here, I met with agents to make sure I could continue acting. I remembered hearing that Mike had moved to Texas and my sister Alyssa convinced me to call him and see if he wanted to come up for the weekend. He couldn’t make it because he was going to a birthday party, but I could tell he was excited to hear from me. We made plans to hang out over Christmas when we would both be back home. When I hung up the phone, Alyssa looked at me, all excited, and exclaimed, “You’re totally gonna marry Mike Visser!!” I told her she was a crazy person.

I met up with Mike in Sioux Falls over Christmas a month later and, well, we hit it off. He came over the next few nights and we caught up and hung out. I was going to be spending New Year’s Eve in Deadwood with my best friend and her family. I invited Mike to come and he said yes and that was it for us! We had such an amazing trip, and the Black Hills are very special to us, which is why we chose it for our wedding location! We kept in touch over the phone in the New Year until I moved, temporarily, to Austin. He came to visit me Valentine’s Day weekend – and every weekend after. I moved out of my Hollywood apartment in June of 2014 and spent most of my time at the Gulf with Mike until he moved up to Austin with me that Labor Day weekend.

Mike proposed to me the Friday after Thanksgiving- 2015. We were supposed to be packing up my childhood bedroom, because my parents were moving and would be in their new house by the time we came back for Christmas. Mike suggested that, before packing, we go see the Falls. Just that day, they had been lit-up with a ton of Christmas lights and had Christmas music playing throughout Falls Park.

We parked and walked down to the bridge overlooking the falls. It was only 26 degrees outside, but there was no wind, so it was actually very beautiful! Cold like that brings calm to the air. We took pictures and then he started walking over to my favorite buffalo statue. It was all lit up with lights behind it, and there was Christmas music playing. I made him take a selfie with myself and the buffalo, and then I scampered off to another spot and made him take more pictures, but he led me back to the buffalo. He just kinda stood there, reading the names of contributors etched into the base of the sculpture and commented that he didn’t recognize any of them. And I was thinking, “Why would you??” But I now realize he was getting up the courage to ask me to marry him!! He turned to me and told me I was his best friend and I said I felt the same. He was all choked up and I was about to ask him if he was ok (I was worried!!) when he got down on one knee, pulled out a ring and asked me to marry him! I could NOT grasp what was happening. And I let him know that by asking, “WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING RIGHT NOW?!?” over and over. I just left the poor guy down in the snow! I finally said, “I don’t know what to do!” And he told me that I should probably say yes. I had forgotten to answer!! Haha! I said yes, he put the ring on my finger, and I almost fainted. I asked someone to take our picture on the bridge over the falls as we were walking out and I awkwardly told them we had just gotten engaged. We picked up champagne on the way home and then, as soon as we parked, I ran inside to tell my mom! That is when I cried. My dad had already known it was happening because Mike had asked him for my hand, but my mom was as shocked as I was!! I literally had NO IDEA. The next night, we went over to Mike’s sister’s and then his mom and dad’s house to tell them the news! It was perfect. We got to share the news with our families, in person, and then we stayed one last night in my childhood home, where he was my first kiss, before we moved out forever. What a way to end a major chapter of my life.

Mike had been grilled by my sister Alyssa when she was visiting us in Austin. She was asking him if and when we were going to get married. They talked for quite a while! After their talk, Alyssa was all excited and told me she could tell he wanted to marry me, little did she know, he had picked out the ring a few weeks before and then, while she was in town, he pretended to work late so he could go pick out my diamond! The ring was already ordered and off to be made. Also, I have loved this ring for years. I’ve never planned anything about my wedding. I didn’t have a wedding scrapbook from when I was young or a Pinterest wedding board from when I was older, but I had seen this ring about nine years earlier with my mom and had googled it probably 25 times to show people! I mentioned to him that I liked this cross-over band style when I was buying a ring for my sister’s birthday earlier that year and he remembered!! There is really only one place that makes this ring, so he got the exact one I had wanted!! When he opened the box and I saw the ring in real-life after seeing it online for years, I almost fell over! He really did an amazing job. We are so excited to get married in the Black Hills, where we reconnected. This has been a long time coming!

How They Met

In third grade, Mike moved to Harrisburg from Iowa where he joined me in school. Mike was my first kiss, in front of my parent’s house, the summer before 8th grade. We then dated seriously when we were 15. Although we were no longer dating, we were crowned Homecoming King and Queen our senior year.  At our class party, Mike asked me out again, but I was leaving for college and didn’t think it was a good idea. We parted ways. I ended up in Los Angeles and he moved to Texas. 15 years passed.