In the summer of 2018, two unsuspecting worlds collided. Churches from all over the country were coming to Houston to stay for a week-long mission trip hosted by Salem Lutheran (Mary’s Church) in aid of the homes destroyed in Hurricane Harvey the year prior. Andrew was a part of one of those churches (Bethany Lutheran). Mary still says she can remember the first time she saw her future husband, “it was like the world slow-motion stopped”. But, she was too shy to introduce herself. As the communications intern at Salem, Mary was responsible for traveling to all of the worksites throughout town to take photos and gather content. All of the worksites were within a 10-mile radius except one. Bethany Lutheran’s worksite was located in downtown Houston, about 45 minutes away. Even though it was completely unnecessary, Mary drove downtown every day. She was so smitten with the guy she and her friends dubbed “blondie boy”. On the second to last day of the mission trip and still having not introduced herself to Andrew (or vise versa as she would like to point out), Andrew played “Burn The House Down” by AJR over the loudspeaker in the Rec Room and with a little boost of courage by her best friend Faith, Mary walked up to Andrew to ask what song was playing. Twenty minutes later they had already discovered that they had much more in common than their taste of music. Low and behold, they had lived in Colorado at the same time the year prior, just twenty minutes apart! On the last day, they exchanged numbers and went separate ways thinking that was the extent of any potential friendship as Andrew lived in Austin and Mary lived in Houston. Until a week later when Andrew drove 3 hours to Houston to take Mary on a date and the rest was history!

Andrew and Mary had been dating for two and a half years when Andrew proposed at Sapphire Overlook on Lake Dillon located in Frisco, Colorado on January 6th of 2021.

Andrew and Mary will be moving to Denver, Colorado after their small but sweet Texas wedding. The couple are excited to start this new chapter of their life together near the Rocky Mountains and are looking forward to hosting friends and family when they come to visit!