You always hear about the stress and pressure of wedding planning, but throw a global pandemic into the mix and it's a whole new ballgame. Last month we realized that our dream day wasn’t going to happen as we envisioned, and contacted our wedding guests to update them on our plan. We started planning for a 50 person backyard ceremony with some of our closest family and friends, still on May 16, because we were hopeful Alabama’s guidelines would allow for it by then. Of course those plans also changed, just last week, when our state’s leaders made the decision to maintain the gathering limit to ten people. With upmost respect for this decision, we realized a wedding in Alabama wouldn’t be possible. We started grasping for any plan that would allow us to share the biggest day of our lives with at least our immediate families and wedding party. Last Thursday, 15 days until our wedding, we found the most perfect boutique hotel in Franklin, Tennessee that allows weddings of under 35 people (including the photographer, officiant, and servers!). We planned a last minute road trip and were able to stay in the hotel this past weekend to meet with vendors and such. God is blessing us with this fabulous, last-minute plan that allows us to share our wedding with some of our most special loved ones (even though we’re still missing SO many). We are working on a plan for live-streaming our ceremony, and will post that for everyone soon on our website! We are so happy to share that after this rollercoaster, May 16 will still end in my #BrandNewName and basically an entirely #BrandNewWedding.

Chad and I met at The University of Alabama, or more specifically, Bryant-Denny Stadium during the 2016 Iron Bowl. After four quarters of bonding over our presidential woes (him leading Delta Tau Delta and me still serving SGA), he finally drank enough liquid courage and asked for my Snapchat name. We "snapchatted" all of Christmas break, and then he *finally* asked for my phone number to take our status to the ever-ambiguous stage defined as "a thing." By the end of the holiday break, I went back to Tuscaloosa to fly with the UA board and my BFF Sara Oswalt to the National Championship game in Tampa (SGA prez perks!). The night before we left, Chad mentioned that he also was in town for the night and would love to hang out. Of course, I said yes and waited anxiously at my condo (affectionately called "the 'do" by our friends) for him to pick me up. When I got in his Jeep, I was greeted by a Smirnoff Ice in the passenger seat. Yes, he "iced" me on our first date. Ironically, ice quickly became the theme for the rest of the night. If anyone remembers January 2017 in Tuscaloosa it was bitter cold, and the roads were iced over making getting around nearly impossible. Due to the snow/ice across town, everywhere was closed. We called Avenue Pub, Five, Chucks, and all other usual date spots to no avail. Chad, the movie-buff, suggested we go to the movie theater cause "they never close." We got to the AMC, and of course it was closed, too. But to our delight, the IHOP next door was poppin' and packed with people. I think Chad was hesitant to take me there for our first date, but I can never turn down a stack of blueberry pancakes. As we sat in the IHOP amongst some of Tuscaloosa's finest, we shared in memories of high school sports, OCD fathers, and doting mothers. We laughed together for two hours, reluctantly leaving when we realized they were closing. When Chad dropped me back off at the 'do I immediately texted my best friends: "ok guys -- I'm obsessed."

Lillian and I met during the fall of our junior year at the University of Alabama. At the Iron Bowl that season, I was fortunate enough to get the chance to spend the entire game talking to Lillian, the cute SGA president that was out of my league. After 4 quarters of laughs, I decided it was now or never and decided to ask for her Snapchat. After a few weeks of Snapchatting and more than a gentle nudge from my friends, I finally built up the *liquid* courage to ask for her number over Christmas Break. We both were in town days before the Spring semester started, so we decided to go out on our first date the night before Lillian left to go to Tampa for the National Championship game. As I was about to leave to pick her up, I realized that I had accidentally locked my car keys in my bedroom of the fraternity house. My initial sense of panic quickly faded as I realized that the house had a master key that could unlock every door. The panic returned just as quickly, however, when I remembered that as the newly elected President of the fraternity, the master key was with my other keys locked behind my door. So I did the only thing I could think of that would keep me from cancelling our date; I kicked the door down. After rescuing my keys, I left to pick up Lillian only for it to start snowing. The only place that seemed to be open was the IHOP right next to the movie theater, so we had to make that work. We spent the next two hours talking and laughing over pancakes to the point the waitress interrupted, “Okay, I have to ask, is this a first date?” After finally accepting that we must leave IHOP to let them close up, I drop Lillian off and head home. As I pulled away, I remember being thankful for the opportunity to take this special girl out on at least one date, hoping I had the opportunity to take her on just one more, and thinking about the broken door I was going to have to fix.