Garrett and Kalena’s story began on the very first day of 6th grade. Garrett’s height gave him the advantage of spotting Kalena across the lunchroom and making sure he grabbed the seat next to her at the lunch table. Not long after, Kalena had gym class with Garrett’s best friend, Hunter, and quickly realized the fastest way into Garrett’s heart was becoming friends with him first. She made it very clear to Hunter just how cute she thought Garrett was. The two shared a few classes together, and after hearing a teacher tell a story about two former students who ended up getting married after the boy asked to move seats closer to the girl, Garrett decided to try the same strategy himself. The next day, Kalena walked into class surprised to find Garrett now sitting beside her. Through middle school, they talked on and off until Garrett may or may not have been scared away at Kalena’s 13th birthday party. Either by her dad asking him to dance with her or by Kalena beating him at pool. Regardless, he never stayed away for too long. As moms usually do, Kalena’s mom saw it coming long before they did and always said the two would end up married one day. Garrett’s mom also started asking questions about why Garrett was always spending time at Kalena’s house if she was “just a friend.” What started as school dances, young crushes, and innocent middle school love slowly turned into something much bigger during their senior year of high school. Soon after, they took on long distance while Kalena attended the University of Florida and Garrett worked toward earning his wings at Polk State College. Ironically, one of the only good things to come out of COVID was that it finally brought them back together when Kalena’s classes moved online and they were able to move in together. Since then, life has rarely stayed still for long. Between moving from place to place, breaking more leases than they probably should admit, and building a life together, they quickly learned that living together teaches you everything you need to know about a person. A few short years later, after Garrett got hired at SkyWest Airlines and finally unlocked free travel benefits, Kalena planned a graduation trip to Ireland to visit family. What she didn’t know was that Garrett had much bigger plans for the trip. At the Cliffs of Moher, Garrett asked Kalena to marry him. Although their engagement was a long one, to them it flew by. Between moving to Detroit, Garrett beating cancer, moving back to sunny Florida, and Kalena leaving her role with the Miami Dolphins to help build their business, SkyCoach Aviation, life stayed busy. Now, after all the moves, milestones, challenges, and adventures, they’re finally planning the wedding day they’ve dreamed about for years and they can’t wait to celebrate it with all of you!