Well, Christopher has a bit of an obsession with golf. With Scotland being the "home of golf", Jessica and his parents gifted him with the trip for his law school graduation this year, planning to leave just three days after walking the stage! Three months after booking the trip, Christopher proposed! Now, we did try to plan a traditional wedding here in the U.S. However, there are a lot of moving parts in our lives with Christopher graduating in May, and us moving to Washington D.C. in June. Where would we have the wedding? Mobile seemed to be the easiest, but it's hard to plan a wedding in a city you don't live in! We live in Birmingham now, but we're about to move! Surely it couldn't be D.C., who would be able to make it? We have family and friends spread out across the country! That made the decision a bit easier. After some heavy debate, and lots of discussions, we decided to take advantage of the time we'll be out of the country to get married in a very intimate ceremony with only our parents in the beautiful landscape of Scotland. We wish you were there with us, and you will be in hearts. We want to strip back the chaos that wedding days can be, and enjoy our day without stress. We are so grateful to have our parents there to play an active part in our two families becoming one. Below is the story of us! We hope you enjoy learning a bit more about each of us, and hopefully have a couple of laughs. We love you, and thank you for being apart of our lives!

It was summer. Jessica had just graduated from high school that May, and was in need of a second job. While working part time as a receptionist at the local SuperCuts was just fine and dandy, she was searching for a bit more of a purpose. So, she reached out to the Saraland YMCA and landed a job as a full time Summer Camp Counselor (thanks Carmen!). 40 hours a week with a group of smelly kids having so much fun that they were falling asleep mid bite of a corndog at lunch was loads of fun, trust me! Meanwhile, Christopher (the rule breaker that most of you know him to be) received about 15 too many tickets from the parking Nazis while at the University of Alabama. Not thinking they'd ever do anything about it, he had quite the rude awakening when coming home for the summer with his mother standing at the kitchen counter glaring at him over a stack of unpaid parking tickets. As it was, he too was in need of a summer job and became a lifeguard for the Saraland YMCA. As fate would have it, the two crossed paths twice a week for the whole summer when Jessica would bring her group of kiddos to the pool for swim time!

They met in early June, but it was strictly a flirtatious friendship at work. They were both terrified to ask to exchange phone numbers! "He's so much older than me!" "What if she says no?" Facebook to the rescue! There's no harm in sending a friend request, right? The worst thing she could do is deny it.. but she didn't. And that same day she sent him a very casual, "So, when you going back to T-town?". From there, numbers were exchanged, Jessica left the beach a day early to try and meet him at the hospital because he stepped on a rusty nail, and the first night meeting outside of work ended with fast food and hours of chatting.

After the first meeting, they were inseparable! They saw each other every. single. day. until he had to go back to school in August. Those weeks were pure bliss. He took her on a surprise trip to the beach at sunset, to dinner on the bay, and to explore downtown. Once, he took her to the Renaissance hotel, showed her the whispering arches in the structure, then took her to the bridge connecting the hotel to the parking deck and watched a storm blow through the downtown area. The next day, he took her to the Fairhope pier to watch a storm roll in across the bay before treating her to some amazing seafood! They explored as many nearby cities they could, found favorite spots to eat, and laughed a lot. Every day was an adventure that ended in nights accidentally falling asleep on the couch to a movie.

They went out on his jet ski that day. It was extremely awkward. You know that stage in a new relationship where you're just trying to kinda.. play it cool? Yeah, they were hitting that stage hard. After a day of sunshine, splashing, and splinters (thanks to a very poor jet ski parking job by Christopher by a very old pier), it was time to say their goodbye's. He walked her to her car, smiled, and even cracked a joke. Then he got a little closer, testing the waters, still trying to be cool. Then he put his hand on the car and leaned in for the kiss.. ONLY TO PULL AWAY at the very last second. Yup! Nerves got the best of him, sweet guy! But the second try was the charm, and a quick peck on the lips left her dizzy with excitement for the rest of the night.

He formally asked her to be his girlfriend on July 26, 2015 after a perfect day. The sun was setting, and there was a cool breeze but you could still feel the heat of the sun during the day radiating from the pavement. He took her downtown and they walked together along the bay. Since then, they've moved in together and live in Birmingham, AL, and have become parents to the two most adorable English Springer Spaniels, Millie and Winston. Christopher has nearly finished law school, and Jessica is attending the University of Alabama to become an Interior Architect. Yes, the hour drive each day still sucks. They've went on three cruises, started an annual camping trip, spent every 4th of July at Lake Martin with some amazing friends who didn't sweat it when he dropped one of their phone's in the lake, took a golf trip to Hilton Head, went on their first Disney and Universal Studios vacation that they could remember, and met some of the best of friends.

They both had a long day that day. Jessica came home and immediately washed her face, put her hair in a bun, and got into the most comfortable sweatpants and old t-shirt she could find, poured a glass of wine, and finished off the pizza Christopher brought home. They sat there on the couch, talking. She had been working 40 hours a week on top of going to school, so they hadn't had time in a while to simply enjoy each other's company. They talked for hours reminiscing about their life together, and about their goals for the future. Where did they want to be in 5 years? 10 years? They discussed how many kids they want to have, tossed around baby names for fun, and gave opinions on the type of parents they want to be (it'll be a while, so be patient). It was a great night reconnecting, and loving each other with their words and their time. He teased her by asking her what she would do if he proposed right there and then. Mind you, she'd been on his tail about a proposal so the question wasn't unexpected. It felt like a tease; he'd asked it before when she was mid rage about him not doing the dishes or laundry. But he asked again, looked at her for a minute, and said, "I'll be right back". And he was. With a ring, in a box, on one knee, in the comfort of their home that they shared since the beginning. Within the same walls that heard words of affirmation and also of irritation, he asked her to be his wife. It was without the flowers, or the balloons, or the secret photographer hiding in the bushes. It was without perfect nails, or makeup done, or even the knowledge of anyone! He took advantage of a moment between them that was full of love and hope for the future to tell her that he loved her and wanted all those things with her. Forever. It was perfect.

So there you have it - a short story of our lives together thus far. Our future is bright and we are about to be full steam ahead on our married lives. Christopher will start working in politics, and Jessica will be completing her final years of school. After that, we're pretty much up for anything. "'For I know the plans I have for you', declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm, plans to give you a hope and a future.'" Jeremiah 29:11

We both have a little anxiety, Jessica a bit more so, on our fast approaching wedding. Not because it is the beginning of forever; it's because of all the changes that will take place surrounding our wedding. We have quite a few life events happening at once, and we are frequently asked about them. So, here is a little snapshot about how our wedding month is going to go. May 1st We are hitting the ground running. Christopher's job is taking us to D.C.! We will begin packing all of our belongings and furniture, and slowly move them into storage before Christopher's graduation on.. May 10th We'll take that weekend to celebrate his Juris Doctor degree, and finish packing the last of our items. May 13th We will turn in the keys to our existing apartment and hop on a plane to Europe. This will be our last day as Alabama residents. We'll basically be homeless in Europe for 2 1/2 weeks - how exciting?! May 19th Our wedding! We are so excited for this day, and grateful that our parents will be there, supporting us. May 31st We will be in Europe a grand total of 18 days. In the days following the wedding we will have travelled the greater part of Scotland, and had a short stay in London. Meanwhile, our parents will have returned from the wedding (and a mini vacation of their own), picked up our belongings from storage in Birmingham, and made the haul to our new home in Washington, D.C.! We'll be flying in on the 31st. We are constantly reminding ourselves that growth isn't meant to be comfortable, and that we need to be joyful about this season in our lives despite its challenges. Again, we can't thank our family enough for all of their love and support. We could not have done this without them!