Jordan and I met online. Sometimes I wish there was a better story to it, that we locked eyes over the top of a dusty shelf in an out-of-the-way used book store, but the truth is that dating is hard and we both have anxiety. I had come off a long string of bad first dates, and was actually only in town the day we met for another of my failed ventures. We met in downtown Springfield for lunch before I drove 2 hours back to where I lived in Arkansas. Jordan told me after that between nerves and the fact that her soup was too spicy, that she thought for sure she hadn't made a good impression., but I was planning how to ask her out again, from two hours away, before I left the parking lot. There were parts of our relationship that frankly shouldn't have worked, and there were many instances of mishaps and missteps, and friends and family questioning our somewhat accelerated timeline, but here we are, thanking spicy soup and bad dates, for the chance to be here celebrating with all of you.

We met on a dating app. Even though there's some weird stigma around it, I'm so glad I downloaded that one random app that looked promising and maybe had a different crowd than I was used to seeing on the other apps. Our first date was at Maria's in downtown Springfield and I ordered this soup that was way too spicy for me. I listened to him talk about his travels and his life and I thought to myself, "I could definitely see myself looking at this face for the rest of my life". We took a walk around the block before going to our cars and he told me he liked Reliant K, double kick pedals and there was a really cool used book store in Fayetteville he thought I would like. I was sold. He kissed me on the cheek, which he thought was lame, but I thought it was very sweet and "European". I had finally found the person I spent so much time looking for, and I cannot express how incredibly excited I am to celebrate the beginning of the next chapter with you all.