Well hi friends and family… I could sit here and pretend to write this in the third person as if it’s both Ethan and I speaking, but we all know it’s the brides with the brain power behind these operations. Ethan did give his stamp of approval though, so unfortunately, I have to tell the truth. For those of you who don’t know Ethan and I as well as others, whenever we’re asked how we met, I always start the same way: “Funny story actually… Ethan and I were fully platonic best friends for four years before we started dating.” And then I go on to explain the same things every time. Yes, we spent almost every day together throughout four years of college. No, we didn’t secretly like each other (although we might argue otherwise now). No, neither of us ever crossed the line. Yes, we gave each other relationship advice while dating other people. And yes, of course our families called it from the very beginning that we would end up getting married someday. At the time, we laughed it off. We were exactly what each other needed then - best friends. Some of our favorite memories are from those college years, being our most carefree and reckless selves, while unknowingly building the kind of foundation people write books about. But somewhere between dreaded adulthood approaching, moving away from friends, and the sudden thought of Ethan being in a new relationship keeping me up at night, I realized I might be crushing on my best friend. It took a few weeks, my entire family and friend group convincing me he liked me too, and a couple of therapeutic wine nights before I finally sat on my couch and confessed my feelings… …only for him to reject me. You can imagine my surprise. Cue a few months of us attempting to go back to being “just friends,” which mostly meant finding any excuse to spend time together and realizing we really couldn’t stay away from each other. Then on a weekend trip with friends to Nashville, where we now happen to live, Ethan finally admitted he had feelings for me too. Naturally, I was still mad at him for rejecting me first, but he made up for it. If I remember correctly, his words were something along the lines of, “It’s always been you, Chelsea,” but I digress. And then, like something straight out of the rom-coms I grew up loving, he kissed me for the first time. There hasn’t been a day since I’ve known Ethan that he hasn’t made me smile. We could be stuck in an empty room and I’d never get bored. No space feels whole unless we are in it together. He’s my favorite person in the whole world, and according to him as he sits next to me, he agrees 😉 Cheers to the University of Kentucky, to the friends and family who were right all along, and to all the women who have to make the first move. All of that to say… I guess some clichés turn out to be true, because I cannot wait to marry my best friend.