Our story begins with a musical artist named Dominic Balli. Dominic was booking a "house shows" tour in Southern California and Alicia's baby brother Aaron decided to add his parent's house to the list. So on a warm summer night, June 10th 2018 to be exact, the band showed up at the Reyes household. The electric guitar player for said band just so happened to be our groom Mr. Brenden McPeek. As the band was setting up, the Reyes family was getting everything ready in the backyard. Among the family was the oldest sibling and only daughter, our bride, Ms. Alicia Reyes. Brenden remembers meeting Alicia in the makeshift "greenroom" (aka the kitchen) and finding himself at a loss for words when confronted with her beauty. Alicia however does not remember this encounter. Fast forward 5 years and they just so happened to be leading worship together at the Pastor's Conference at Calvary Chapel Golden Springs. I say "just so happened" but what I really mean is Brenden asked if he could join the band because he knew Alicia was singing. He tried to talk to her that entire day at the conference, he even pretended to like coffee just so he could accompany her to the coffee cart outside. But his efforts went unnoticed, or at least he thought they did... A few days later, Alicia messaged Brenden and asked him why he didn't talk to her at the conference. He was flabbergasted by this message. But he quickly told her that he made every effort to talk to her that day. He then told her that if she was interested, he would love to talk more over dinner. She quickly accepted but kept Brenden hanging on any further details. It would be a couple weeks later until Brenden finally nailed down a date and time to meet up. Alicia gave Brenden her phone number and Brenden saved it into his phone. Unfortunately he typed it by hand and made a crucial typo. He saved her number wrong, so when he went to text her the address and meeting time his message went to someone else. This someone else let Brenden know that he had the wrong number but not until the day he and Alicia were supposed to meet up. In spite of all of the confusion and wrong numbers they finally arrived at True Foods Kitchen in Newport Beach. Brenden had called ahead and asked for a table on the patio away from everybody so that they could talk without much interruption. The conversation was so natural and easy. They talked about EVERYthing! Alicia even shared with Brenden that she never wanted to get married. As a matter of fact she told him that she had never even thought about her wedding day, or considered what her dress would look like. Do you think this stopped Brenden? Of course not! They continued to laugh at each others jokes and go deeper with the conversation. A couple hours had passed without them realizing and it was time to head out. Brenden asked Alicia if she would want to go see his buddy Juan play football, she quickly agreed but on one condition, she wanted to drive. Brenden reluctantly agreed and they went to the game together. After the game Alicia took Brenden back to his car. Brenden remembers telling Alicia goodnight and walking to his car. He felt like he had met his future wife. Alicia said that "he felt like home" to a friend as she drove back to her place. That next Thanksgiving Brenden asked Alicia to come outside and help him with something. He took her into that same backyard where they had met 5 years before and asked her to marry him. They have been inseparable ever since and they will be getting married October 18th, 2024. It's incredible so see what the Lord can do when He does it His way and in His timing. He truly has made everything beautiful in His time...