Friends and family, Thank you to those who have reached out, and those who are praying for the families and structures impacted by the Kincade Fire. On Thursday 10/31 we made the call to proceed as planned with our wedding at Vintners Inn. Mandatory evacuation orders were lifted in Santa Rosa, Windsor, and Healdsburg, and as of 10/31 the fire was increased to 60% contained. We have received good news from our wedding coordinator and Vintners staff. If your travel or lodging was impacted by the fires and power outages please let us know. Thank you to those who have offered assistance, we will let you know where you can help! We are so excited to see all of you and celebrate together!

From the first week at Malibu Young Life camp in Canada, I knew I was in trouble when this cute baseball player immediately caught my attention. I thought there was no way anything more would come of this silly crush, especially as we were volunteering on Summer Staff, not intending on dating. During the take down part of the 'Carnival Night' that Summer Staff leads, Ben was showing off his Nashville country dancing skills he had gained from his time at Vanderbilt. I have never country danced in my life before this moment, so needless to say, I was not eager to try now. He eventually got me to open up and dance with him. Shortly after he said, "Do you trust me?" I questionably replied, "Sure...?" as he proceeded to ask me to run & jump towards him while he would lift me up in the air over him. Oh yeah, pure Dirty Dancing style. After a lot of convincing, I finally ran towards him and did it. The spark between us in that moment is something I'll continue to reference as 'The Moment' our friendship turned into a twitter-patted crush that I could no longer avoid! In the following weeks, Ben began to 'help out' in the ice cream shop I was working at camp while he had off time. All of the free ice cream samples he received quickly turned into deeper life talks and getting to know each other. I knew Ben was unlike any other man I had met by his constant pursuit of my friendship first. By the end of week 3, he approached me with the question 'Do you have plans tonight?' as if our schedules ever varied much. He wouldn't tell me what we were doing but all I knew is I had to meet him at 6. I arrived eager and giddy to see what he had planned. To my surprise, he had a boat ride waiting for us. In my book, this 100% takes the cake for best first date a girl could dream of. I didn't know what our relationship would hold after we said our goodbyes, but what I did know was that Ben was worth taking the risk of pursuing what it could be. Boy, am I happy I did!!

Is there a better place to meet your wife than where the mountains hit the waves in British Columbia? Wow. I first saw Em the day before camp started when she was sitting by the dock journaling everyone's names and her first impressions of them (all positive, of course) so she could remember people. 'What a weird thing to do...but she's cute...I'll join.' Fast forward a week and I was making regular trips to the Totem Inn to get a few free samples and chat with the girl behind the bar. (Talk about God opening a door when she moved from the coffee shop to the ice cream store) Then it was the game of hanging out without really hanging out. We sat and talked together on the dock, took a picture together at the waterfalls when I shaved "YL" into my chest, she coaxed some piggy back rides out of me without much resistance, and I was doing my best to avoid making it 'a thing.' But her smile shines bright, and perhaps never brighter than when we got a private concert from Brandon Heath in the middle of the Princess Louisa Inlet--that was the end of pretending for me. That night (week 3 day 6) I was "helping" at the Totem Inn and dropped a spoon with a winky face and my initials in Em's bag, and then started praying she'd find it soon. With some help she did, and sent her own back hidden in a milkshake. The next day I struck romantic gold: the adult volunteers showed up with a fiberglass boat and (courtesy of the chip) offered me a ride that week. My heart was working double time the next day (week 4 day 2), and I skipped out of dinner early to head to what Em thought would be our first date at the frisbee golf course. She couldn’t have been more surprised when we took a hard right turn and went down to the boat waiting on the dock—there was the smile again. I’m sure the views from that boat ride were stunning, but my eyes were drilling holes in the side of her head making sure I didn’t miss my opportunity to kiss her. I didn’t, and I will be forever thankful for that.