Meet the Sioux Falls couple who got engaged at the new holiday plaza downtown

The love story of Brielle Hogue and Isaac Decker includes two pivotal scenes at the downtown Sioux Falls Parade of Lights.

Their first date was at the annual parade two years ago, following a friend’s introduction and some Facebook messaging that prompted them to meet up.

“Ever since we met, we just had this kind of fire,” said Hogue, who moved to South Dakota from Hawaii a decade ago and graduated from Brandon Valley High School.

Decker, who grew up just west of Sioux Falls, works for Avera in home medical equipment. Hogue graduates from the University of Sioux Falls this week and has been teaching at Harrisburg’s Freedom Elementary, where she’ll now become a full-time substitute for the rest of the school year.

From the start, the two clicked.

“When we’re together, it’s just so easy,” Hogue said. “He can complete my sentences. We’re so different that it works in such a great way, and we never really want to be apart.”

They were regulars driving around “enjoying the car scene” right away, Decker said.

“We’d drive a motorcycle everywhere, and we’d drive around and enjoy the nights when they’re still bearable, and in the winter we like to stay in and watch movies and hang out with our two cats,” he said.

They like going downtown on weekends “and enjoying the city view,” Hogue added.

Fast-forward to this year’s Parade of Lights, and she was in for a trip downtown like no other.

After Thanksgiving dinner with Decker’s family, they were getting ready to go to the parade, “and I told my mom I’ve got the ring,” he said. “So if you want to come take pictures, that would be the time. So my mom and aunt and uncle came down and watched the whole parade, which was amazing, and we were taking pictures in the MarketBeat (Holiday) Plaza, and I just decided now is as good a time as any.”

Hogue thought they were taking photos to commemorate their two-year anniversary, and then Decker suggested she step forward and take some on her own.

“He went behind me, and I had a strange look, and I turned around, and he was down on one knee,” she said. “And he said: ‘Hi. Will you marry me?’ I was trying not to cry the whole time, and everyone started cheering once I said yes and put the ring on,” she said. “It was pure love and bliss, and it was just great.”

The honeymoon-type feeling still hasn’t left, they said.

“It was romantic and beautiful,” she said. “I had no clue.”

And as they’ve shared photos of their moment on the holiday plaza, they’ve gained a lot of attention for downtown’s newest attraction.

“People were asking: ‘What is that? It’s gorgeous. Is that downtown?'” Hogue said. “(MarketBeat founder) Matt (Paulson) commented saying congratulations, and we thanked him for his addition. People were so surprised and thought it was romantic and beautiful. And I definitely will go back.”

The parade is destined to become an annual tradition for the couple, they said.

In the meantime, the wedding date is already set: June 3, 2023.

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