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September 1, 2018
Homewood, IL
#BecomingBakun

Ali & James

    How We Met
    Schedule

FloralFloralFloral

James Bakun

and

Ali Rainey

#BecomingBakun

September 1, 2018

Homewood, IL

How We Met

First comes love, then comes marriage.

James and I met in college. After running into each other a couple times around campus, we finally planned to hang out at a Superbowl party. After I left, James realized I left something there and chivalrously returned it. Over the next few months we took every opportunity to be together. From romantic dinners at Joey’s - to Beer Breakfasts at the Coxbury. But I’d have to say, one of the most memorable moments with James was our roadtrip to St. Louis. My girlfriends had been going there for the past couple years for the college version of Mardi Gras. I knew I didn’t want to drive there alone so on a college Saturday morning, I called James and extended an invite (we were still in the flirting stages of our nonrelationship at the time). Surprised he even answered the phone, I couldn’t believe he agreed to come. The whole drive down was a blast. We laughed, shared past experiences and played the ever so popular game, “name that tune”. You can learn a lot about someone based on the music they like. James knew every song on my Ipod (don’t you feel old?), and it made me crush on him even more. One of the songs I played was the theme song from Forrest Gump. You know, the one where the feather floats around and lands on Tom Hank’s shoe? Some ask, why would I have that song on my Ipod, but it didn't matter because James yelled “Forrest Gump!” as soon as I pressed play. After hours of listening to music and getting to know each other, we got to St. Louis. The trip was one to remember and before we knew it, it was Sunday and we were back home. James called me that night and asked if I wanted to come over. Being neighbors at the time, I thought I could handle the 1 minute walk. I went to his house and we reminisced about the wild weekend. James grabbed the remote and turned on the T.V. Crazy enough, we smiled as we heard a familiar song…it was the feather scene from Forrest Gump. It was at that moment, we both knew that this was the beginning of “us”.

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