We’re so glad you’re here.

Our earliest memory of each other is in kindergarten at Goodwin Elementary School. We have siblings around the same age, and our moms were heavily involved in our school, so our families were always around. Our love story starts with many memories at our school's playground, and as we got older, on the basketball and volleyball courts after lunch. We both have vivid memories of playing footsies under the table in 5th grade. I remember coming home one day from school and asking my mom, "Why is Ijah kicking me under the table so much?" She told me he was probably trying to flirt in his little fifth grade way... We went on to sixth grade and continued to have middle school crushes on each other, on and off, but of course never admitted that to each other. So, we were just simply, good friends. In eighth grade, Ijah asked me to our formal dance. He was so nervous, and I was so scared. And if you know us, you can guess it was so very awkward. Just a month or so later, I moved to Nashville to pursue my career in music. We continued to keep up with each other over text, but nothing ever came of it. Freshman and sophomore year went by as we continued to stay in touch. And soon after that, Covid-19 hit the world like a truck. In the early months of Covid, our friend group started to get really close again. Although we couldn't see each other, we all would stay up playing games on our computers and talking to each other. And then as Covid slightly started easing up, I spent all of my free time begging my mom to drive us home to Chicago. We would go home every couple of weeks, and I would spend every last second of my time with our friends. We gravitated towards each other, just like old times. Our group of friends spent the summer of 2020 hammocking, watching the stars, going for long drives, and learning to appreciate our world for what it was. And Ijah and I spent that summer falling in love, and reminding each other of those silly, old, elementary school crushes. He asked me to be his girlfriend on July 20th, 2020, and we moved home to Chicago later that year in November. If you told middle school Ali that she would be marrying Ijah Hardersen, she would literally be jumping up and down for joy. And if you told middle school Ijah that he was marrying Ali Hill, he would not have believed his ears. We loved each other then, in that dorky little kid type of way, and we love each other now. If you've made it to this point, we appreciate you reading our story. We love and deeply appreciate everyone for supporting our journey this far, and we cannot wait to celebrate this new chapter! Cheers! If you couldn't tell already, this is Ali telling this version of our story. Ijah is going to give it his best try below. Enjoy. <3 I'm not sure if Ali said how we met, but I don't remember much, since I was in Kindergarten. I do remember sitting at the same lunch table every day in the 4th and 5th grade, always laughing. Not much has changed. The jokes have (hopefully) improved since then. I know mine have, can't speak for Ali. We started dating during the covid summer, which was really just a full year of barely any school and constantly hanging out outside. It was probably the happiest year of my life, and Ali was a big part of that. These past 5 years flew by as we grew into the people we are today. We've suffered through soccer games, bad jokes, late night homework sessions, the occasional hangry Ali sighting and the working "adult" life - yet not much has changed. We're still the same people we were in 5th grade, and I'm so excited to see what this next part of life has to offer.