we’re getting married!

(bride’s perspective) I met Isaac for the first time at a practice after being convinced by my dad to try mountain biking. I fell in love instantly, with mountain biking of course. Due to the mutual love of the sport we shared, we started to see more of each other over the next year. We spent many evenings and weekends together surrounded by some of our best friends. They definitely knew we were in love with each other before we ourselves did. A year later Isaac officially asked me out despite me warning him several times that my parents were not going to go along with that idea. Nevertheless he persisted, and I thank God daily that he did. I also thank my parents for somehow taking their 15 year old seriously when she said that she was in love with the boy she would marry ;)

(groom’s perspective) I guess most of you reading would like to know how I was able to keep a catch like Caitlyn for this long. Frankly, I have no idea. She was out of my league five years ago, and she still is today. I planned our proposal since our first year of dating and I can safely say that almost nothing went according to plan. Once I decided to propose in Michigan I knew that I needed to keep the ring secret somehow. As I’m sure most of you know, I am not great at secrets or surprises. In fear that I would spoil the proposal I knew I needed to do it quickly. This led me to propose within the first 24 hours after arriving at the family cottage in Michigan. The night before, I thought it was a good idea to leave the ring in the truck, I also thought it was a good idea to leave my keys in the truck, and lock it all up. So, I was off to a great start with the ring and my keys both locked in my truck. Thankfully, Adam knows how to break into cars and was well aware of what I was planning to do the next morning. Once we had that resolved, I asked Caitlyn if she would like to do one of her favorite things, watching the sunrise at Point Betsie. She then said... no. Being that I was banking on her to say yes, Cheri persisted and convinced her to get up with me the next morning. The morning of, she decided she wanted to go to a different beach instead. After sunrise she somehow like read my mind, she mentioned "do you want to go to Point Betsie so we can look for rocks?" I was screaming YES in my head, but I calmly said that it was a great idea. Once we made it there it was still fairly early, so we start to walk down the empty beach. I let her walk a little bit ahead of me where I nervously got down on one knee as she turned around. I then start to fumble the ring box and try and open it from the wrong direction. Once I finally got it open and asked the question, she was so in shock she forgot to actually answer. All in all, I wouldn't have had it any other way.

We attended the same daycare as toddlers. We have the matching crafts to prove it. Our dads rode mountain bikes together in similar circles as 20 somethings. Our moms went to high school together and were in the same RHS sorority!