I bet you'll hear 5 different versions of this story on the wedding night, but here's ours: in June of 2022, Nick made the last minute decision to fly back to Minnesota from Australia in time to attend the wedding of an old friend. Not knowing many people at the wedding, one of the bridesmaids he did know pulled him into a circle of people during happy hour and introduced him to the others, including Payton (also a bridesmaid) and her parents. Payton had had a few drinks by this point in the day and was just having a good time, so didn't get to spend a lot of time talking to Nick, but definitely thought he was handsome. Her parents, on the other hand, wouldn't stop talking Nick's ear off. When it was time for dinner, the group dispersed, all seated at different tables. Payton's mom, Jenny, didn't want to let Nick get away, though, and convinced him to move to their table since it didn't look like he was having any fun at all at his table. Lucky Nick got to spend most of the rest of his evening with Jenny and Scott (Payton's dad). Payton hadn't talked to Nick a whole lot that night, since she was busy partying the night away, but her mom made sure to tell her how great Nick was and made it very apparent to Nick all night (embarrassingly so) that she thought her daughter was a real catch. When Payton looked at her phone later that night, she had an Instagram follow request from Nick. So in typical (drunk) Payton fashion, she messaged Nick to give him a hard time for leaving the wedding early. After a few messages back and forth, she ended up inviting him to the cabin a few weeks later for the 4th of July, not expecting him to take it seriously. A few weeks later - to her surprise - Nick arrived at the cabin just like he said he would. After a couple of days on the lake together, Payton and Nick were smitten. Nick flew out to visit Payton in Denver later that summer, and shortly after that, she booked a trip later that year to visit him in Australia. They stayed in touch for months, and when Nick applied for a job in Denver and got it fairly easily, it all started to seem like they could have real potential as a couple. The last test was the trip to Australia. After a tepid start, it ended up being one of the best trips Payton has ever taken, in large part because her travel partner. They started dating at the end of that trip in November 2022, Nick moved to Denver that December, and the rest is history! Payton believes they ended up together due to fate, but Nick chalks it up to chaos theory...