When the COVID-19 pandemic first started, we had no idea how long it would persist. We continued making wedding plans for 06/26/20. As time went on, we started to worry but continued to hold out hope for our planned event. After all, we'd spent countless hours and lots of money planning this day. I (Chelsea) had dreamed of this my entire adult life. Come end of April we knew that we needed to make a backup plan. We were thinking of moving the wedding to August. We thought 6 more weeks would surely provide time for everything to get back to normal. But after reading MD's Roadmap to Recovery plan, we knew that this summer would just not be a good idea. Even if we could have the wedding, people would be worried, face masks may be required, social distancing may be required. Who ever had fun on a dance floor 6 feet apart??? That said, I have always dreamed of a summer wedding and was not willing to compromise on that. We have also been waiting a long time to finally be husband & wife and couldn't wait another year for that to happen. SO, we decided to plan a private ceremony on our original date and postpone our large celebration to next summer. I've wondered if it will be as special, if people will still want to come, if people will still consider me a "bride". I've felt every emotion from grief to anger to "why me?". But I know now that God has a plan for us, and our marriage is much bigger than one day. So as we embark on this journey as husband and wife, we ask that you would celebrate from afar and save your excitement for 07/09/21!

We went camping with Kaley and AJ for the weekend. After a day of hiking and tubing on the river, Tyler and I went to the nearest grocery store to get stuff for dinner. When we came back to the campsite, Kaley was nowhere to be seen and AJ was walking up the hill from the water. He told us they found a baby bunny down there. Of course I needed to see it, so we followed him down the hill and around the corner where they had set up a heart of candles, roses, and champagne. The rest is kind of a blur because I was so surprised but I must have said yes!

Around Thanksgiving 2015, My college roommate, Erica, invited me to her friend Kaley's new house. Kaley's husband was home from deployment and they had a group of people over. I had never met Kaley or her husband, AJ. Upon arrival I was greeted by two red-headed guys who introduced themselves as AJ and his brother Tyler while laughing. Turns out, they had introduced themselves as the opposite brother. Tyler was not yet 21, so he couldn't go out with us, but he went to visit his friend for the night and graciously allowed Erica and me to sleep in his bed (and eat midnight Domino's pizza in it...oops). We hung out when he came home the next day and added each other on social media. Tyler later started Snapchatting me. He tried to ask me out on a date, but I declined.... until he sent me flowers and I decided I had to at least give the poor guy a chance. Our first date was in January 2016 and the rest is history :)