Man Recreates Sweet Childhood Memory for His ‘Outdoorsy’ Girlfriend by Proposing in Front of Fish Tank at Bass Pro Shops

You don’t see many marriage proposals happening inside a Bass Pro Shops — but for Shelby Pate, it couldn’t have been more fitting.

Pate grew up in Houston making what she calls “core” memories at the outdoor retailer with her dad, according to local outlet First Alert 7. She said he raised her and would take her on special trips to the store, even driving all the way to Dallas for dinner and to watch employees feed the fish in the giant tank.

“I’ve always been an outdoorsy girl,” she told the outlet, explaining that those visits became a meaningful part of her childhood.

So when she and her then-boyfriend, Jake Rydell, began talking seriously about the future, Pate didn’t exactly keep her dream proposal a secret. She made it clear she hoped it would happen at the Bass Pro Shops in Odessa, Texas, where they live — specifically in front of the iconic fish tank.

Rydell said the message came through loud and clear.

“She had dropped multiple hints to me that she’s always wanted to be proposed to in front of the fish tank at Bass Pro Shops. I thought, ‘That’s easy. Check!’ ” he told KOSA.

After looking into the best timing, Rydell learned the store tends to be quieter on Saturday mornings. On Nov. 29, with the couple’s two young children there to witness it, he brought Pate to the tank, got down on one knee, and asked her to marry him. The moment was made even more picture-perfect by accident: both were wearing matching black-and-white buffalo plaid shirts.

“It worked out better than I had it planned in my head,” Rydell said. “I was rehearsing on our way here, but then once the moment was right, I just took it and pulled her in and hit my knee.”

The store celebrated along with them, surprising the newly engaged couple with a gift basket. And Pate, unsurprisingly, has already created a wedding registry there.

The pair have set their wedding date for May 30, 2026.

The couple’s story began a little over a year ago — not at an event or through friends, but in a drive-through line at their local Scooter’s Coffee, per KOSA. Pate, who was a teacher at the time, noticed one of her students working the window and suddenly felt compelled to reach out to the stranger sitting in the car behind her.

“I felt that he needed to know that God loved him,” Pate explained. She asked for a sign, noticed her student was working the drive-through, and decided she had the support she needed to send a message. She wrote a note and asked her student to pass it back.

Rydell said the note arrived at a moment when he truly needed it. The two began talking and stayed on the phone for months before finally going on their first date.