Hannah and I are sure when we met: In the dining hall on our first day at Lipscomb. We're less sure when we started dating. Should we start at our first date at a Josh Ritter concert, on a Friday night, when I looked at Hannah while singing along, "Why do they call it love when / Oh, it feels like lightning?" Or should we count from Sunday, when we admitted we liked each other and started holding hands? Or maybe it's that Monday, when I convinced Hannah that dating me wasn't such a bad idea after all? Or maybe that weekend isn't the right call at all. When we told my aunt and uncle we had started dating, my uncle Chris said, "Oh, y'all finally figured it out." In any case, the past three years or so have been a blur. We spent six weeks in Italy and Austria before the pandemic chased us home. We've been to more concerts than either of us can count. We've sampled a good number of the coffee shops and brunch places in Nashville. And, now, we're going to get married. Knowing Hannah is a great privilege. She's kind and smart and generous. She cares about her friends and her students, often at cost to herself and her sleep schedule. Despite my best efforts, she's taught me the value of whimsy and bouquets of flowers. We're so very excited to welcome you all into a celebration of our story--a story that includes us and our friends and our families and God's boundless and joyful love. We can't wait to see you!

Hannah gave me pretty specific instructions for our proposal. No crowds, no huge party afterward, no photographer hidden behind bushes to capture the moment. So, it was a huge surprise when, one Saturday morning, I picked up Hannah for a hike at a state park we had gone to our first month of dating and played all of our favorite songs on the way out there. It was an even bigger surprise when we hiked up to an overlook to watch the sun rise and I brought out Hannah's favorite breakfast treat (a cronut from the Donut Den). When, after all this, I pulled out a ring and asked Hannah to marry me, she nearly fell over in shock. (Just kidding. She wasn't surprised at all.)