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Andrew Orr typically made fun of his girlfriend Jill Hayes for dressing up their dogs, Ciara and Molly. But one evening earlier this month, he slipped a pair of T-shirts on them.

Ciara’s read “Marry,” and Molly’s read, “Me.”

Orr then waited by the door for Hayes to come home.

“They were so cute,” Hayes said. “They were supposed to stand still, but of course they got excited that I came home.”

But she got the message and said yes to Orr’s proposal.

Orr, a personal banker from Maine, and Hayes, a Maryland native who works at Guilford College’s department of advancement, had been dating for five years. They met while students at Guilford College. Orr was on the football team, which was helping freshmen move in. He carried some of her things into Milner Hall.

“And she happened to be down the hall from me” Orr, 23, said. “And we got to know each other and started spending all our time together. She was beautiful, fun to be around. Never a dull moment.”

He credits Hayes with helping him mature.

“When I met Jill...I didn’t really care about much, other than football and having a good time,” he wrote in the couple’s contest entry. “As time passed and I grew closer to Jill, all my priorities began to change. She made me want to be better at everything. I refocused on school and work and began looking at my long-term goals. Without Jill, I am not sure where I would be right now.”

Hayes, 23, described her beau as “incredibly kind and patient.”

“He’s a gentleman,” she said. “Right before we started dating, he just spent so much time with me, and we just sort of had personalities that matched.”

The two share a love of animals and spend a great deal of time caring for their rescued dogs, taking them camping and hiking.

The couple also likes to cook together.

“Andy’s a great cook,” Hayes said. “It’s big in his family. And I’ve learned a lot about cooking through him, and he sort of helped me develop an interest in recipes. And he’d definitely be the top chef in our house.”

“I come from an Italian family,” Orr said. “I have a pretty good penne vodka recipe. And I got to spend a lot of time with my grandfather, who owned a restaurant when I was growing up, and I got to spend a lot of time with him cooking.”

Most of the couple’s family lives out of state, and they said that was one of the reasons they decided to apply for the Triad Dream Wedding.

“I think because neither of us are from here, this will help lower the burden,” Orr said. “It makes it a lot easier to try and coordinate things when you have a lot of help. And our family — it’s not like they can just hop in the car and come spend a day helping us.”

“Our families want to get involved and they’re very supportive, but they can only do so much of the planning with us,” Hayes said. “And Greensboro is just very special to us. We didn’t want to get married out of state. This is the place that means the most to us. This is our home. This is where we met.”

Contact Robert C. Lopez at 691-5091 or robert.lopez@news-record.com