The decision to have a private ceremony and have our reception before the wedding, while very untraditional, was the best option for us at this point. Circumstances with schedules lent themselves towards a private, weekday ceremony; and some of Maria’s close friends and mentors from across the country were already going to be in town the weekend of the 5th. We hope our marriage celebration will be a fun and exciting time for everyone as we celebrate our upcoming nuptials! We realize that for some, not getting to see us in our wedding attire is a disappointment. And while we know it won’t be quite the same, we have hired an amazing photographer to document our private sunrise ceremony and will have many pictures from her to share with you all!

Our story has a lot of details from over the last 3 1/2 years that God has masterfully orchestrated, but here is the short condensed version: January 1st, 2015 - We met at an ice skating party when Bryan (completely on accident!!) crashed into me because he wasn't looking where he was going. We immediately hit it off afterwards. Spring/Summer 2015 - We spent a lot of time together in group settings, before Bryan headed to Florida in August to study for his Master's. Fall 2015 - Weekly texts turned into weekly phone calls which lasted the duration of Bryan's 4 semesters in Florida. When he was home on break we'd get together and spend as much time as possible together but were still just "friends" at this point not knowing what the other person was thinking. Spring 2017 - Bryan graduated with his MBA and returned to Idaho. A month later on June 25th he told me (still not knowing where I was at) that he loved me and wanted to pursue more then friendship if I (and of course my dad!) were okay with it. I was shocked at the frankness of his confession, but super excited because I was on the exact same page. November 2017 - Bryan asked me to marry him and I said yes. He didn't have a ring yet though and wanted me to help pick that out which we did later that month. The only people who knew about Bryan's "secret" proposal were our parents. Feburary 24, 2018 - Bryan completely surprised me by publicly asking me to marry him and presenting the ring we had picked out, which I thought he was still saving for. He did this at the same ice skating arena we first met at just over 3 years prior. August 8th, 2018 Begin's the next chapter in our story as we plan on marrying at sunrise in beautiful McCroskey State Park surrounded by our parents, siblings, and my grandparents. God has been so good and faithful to bring us to this point of marriage and we can't wait to celebrate that with our family and friends on August 5th!