Nathan Craig Barnard was born on April 16, 2002 in Columbus, Mississippi. Emma Caroline Nottingham was born on September 25, 2002 in Richmond, Indiana. How We Met: Nathan and Emma met at Covenant College through a mutual friend, Megan Proctor (Bridesmaid), in January of 2023. They met several other times in passing until they were RAs for the student apartments together at Covenant over the summer. Then at the end of the summer, Nathan was a Core Team leader for Covenant’s Orientation week with Emma under him as an O-Team leader. During O-Team training and week they started to have little crushes on each other but decided not to pursue it quite yet. Probably because Nathan got to witness how horrid Emma was (is) at pickleball… Then, in January of 2024, Emma and Nathan were on the Orientation Team together for the Spring transfers (Emma was a Spring 2023 transfer). They started falling for each other hard. After countless hours of talking, getting to know each other even more, watching nearly every Quentin Tarantino movie (thanks to Daniel), and most importantly prayer, they decided to make it official. Dating: They dated all throughout that semester amidst capstone for Nathan and 1am shifts at the Blink for Emma. Some highlights of the semester were Day of Prayer, Spring Formal, Easter in Tupelo, and watching the Eclipse in Indianapolis. Nathan graduated with a Bachelors in English in May of 2024. Right after graduation, Emma and Nathan went to meet Emma’s mom in Orlando and went to Disney! Summer: Emma worked as an Intern at LifeSpring Community Health in Chattanooga, TN over the summer and Nathan got a job as a Junior Account Manager at TidalWave Holdings. They worked all summer, had several reading dates (they read like 15 books total), took trips to see family, visited MANY pet stores (because they’re basically free zoos), and prepared for the big year they had ahead of them; Emma’s approaching senior year as an RA at Covenant and their engagement. Our Engagement: On October 25, after many last minute location changes, Nathan proposed to Emma in Coolidge Park. She arrived under the guise of taking her hall photos, and, to her surprise, Nathan was waiting with a homemade scrapbook ending with a poem asking her to marry him. After putting Nathan’s grandmother’s ring on her finger, Emma did in fact take her hall photos while friends and family gathered in a nearby location in the park. Family from both Indiana and Mississippi came together to celebrate the couple and their new life together. Now, they excitedly wait for May 23, 2025, the day they become one and start their new family and journey together.