as most, if not all of you know… we have known each other for what feels like forever, 11 years! our families became close when ian's mom, christine, and my dad, randy, started coaching our little sisters soccer team. back then we weren’t really close, pretty much only hanging out at team bbqs playing hide-n-seek or roasting marshmallows. although we went to the same high-school we didn’t see each other much, as we hung-out in two different friend groups. we lost touch other than the occasional small talk when our little sisters were hanging out all the time 😂 we grew up and found ourselves in different relationships with other people, both ending before and during the covid lockdown… which ultimately brought us together and closer than ever before. we suddenly found ourselves hanging out every week, which was easy because we just tagged along with our sisters! after long nights and deep conversations… we decided to wait and said that if it was meant to be and if it was part of the plan God had for us… then we’d find our way back to each other. ten months later, the night before high-school graduation i gave ian a letter… to keep it short, it said “in a few short months you’ll be in montana and i’ll be arizona, with our families living in two different places… i don’t know what’s gonna happen within the next few months but i’d love to figure it out with you and make every moment count until then”… so we went for it! knowing what was coming in just a few months we spent almost everyday together, we made the most of the time we had left together before college and his family moving away. while we wished for the days to slow down… it all came to an end far too soon… we said goodbye and prepared ourselves for the long road ahead… a long distance relationship. we called every night and texted throughout the day, but it was hard, honestly, the hardest and most emotionally exhausting thing that we’ve ever been through. having to fight the battle of wondering when the next time we’d see each other again would be… we slowly started falling apart. the calls became shorter, and the texting was less frequent. we decided that our friendship meant more to us than our love for eachother did, we made the decision to end things before it ended our friendship entirely. months passed with only “merry christmas” and “happy birthday” texts, when one day i boldly decided to fly to wyoming by myself to see him. we spent spring break together, mostly trying to avoid the awkwardness and figure out what it was that we were doing. we ultimately made the decision to try to make long distance work… which literally lasted two weeks before we decided it was too hard again 😂 so again, months passed and i had the opportunity to fly out to wyoming with a couple friends to visit… so i went again. as you can expect, things were just as awkward as the first time until one night we stayed up past everyone else and talked about our lives, which led to us talking about us. that next day it was time to fly back home, but i couldn’t… i knew that if i had left, that would be it, i’d forever question “what if i had stayed and fought for us?” so that’s what i did, i didn’t get on my plane and i stayed with him from june to august. we made a promise to each other, that this was it, that no matter what happened in our future we were going to fight for one another until the end. soo we went back to long distance and made it work. august 2023 we moved into our first apartment together, he finished school while i worked full time… then we traded places, with me now finishing school and ian working full time. it took a lot to get to where we are today, but we wouldn’t change a thing. we trusted in the plan that God has for us, no matter how challenging it was, and i feel more blessed everyday that we did! we can’t wait to start this new chapter of our lives together, and we’re so happy you’re here to celebrate it with us! we love you! - sierra & ian