see you at the altar!

We first met in high school at a church camp called Dynamos when we were both 15. John was a candidate and I (Joanna) was on team since I was in the grade above. I definitely fell in love at first sight, and it only grew the more I knew him. Once we kept doing Dynamos together and we talked in between the time we didn't have camp, we were crushing pretty hard on each other. I even told Julia (one of my best friends, and now one of my bridesmaids) that I was going to marry him! But nothing ever happened back in high school... we both started dating other people and lost contact once I went off to college. Then, 3 years later, my parents and John were at the same church event, and my mom instantly recognized John and my dad (in true Zein-Eldin fashion) had no idea who he was. My mom instantly texts me a video of John saying "Hi Joanna, I miss you!!" and me and her start talking about how I had a fatttt crush on him in high school, and she tells me "I mean... I wouldn't mind if y'all got together!" Then, I get a text, a missed call, AND a voicemail about wanting to catch up over Facetime sometime soon. I tell Ereina (my roommate at the time, and my now maid of honor) about our story in high school and how I thought I was going to marry him. Of course, she thinks I'm crazy. So, John and I Facetime for about an hour the next day. I tell Ereina I'm gonna marry him, and she still thinks I'm crazy. Then, John and I texted every day from that point forward and started having 3-4 hour Facetime calls almost every day. Once I'm back in Tallahassee after my junior year at PBA, we decide to meet up after 3 years of not seeing each other in person! He comes over to Tallahassee in Pearl, the beloved Driscoll minivan, and he picks me up from my house. He opens the door, we hug for a LONG time, and I look up at him and we have our first kiss. Pure magic. We have our first date (that John completely planned out and surprised me with!) at Funstation playing mini golf, eating our favorite takeout Chinese at the top of Pensacola Garage, and watching the sunset. And we've been inseparable since (except for the 7 months of long distance we endured)! We got engaged on October 15th, 2023 at Maclay Gardens, and cannot WAIT to get married on August 3rd, 2024!!!