In August of 2009, Jake's best friend (Dillon) married my older sister (Leah). Jake was best man , I was maid of honor. We hit it off immediately. We bonded over speech giving, we danced, we kissed on a park bench outside of the reception hall. Sadly, we were young and we lived almost 500 miles apart. We stayed in touch for a while, lots of phone calls, a few visits. Eventually we lost touch and only saw each other a few times throughout the years when I would come to KC to visit Leah and her family.

But wait, there's more (DUH). In 2019, I moved from Wisconsin to KC to live with my sister. Jake was on a job in Texas - go figure- but we saw each other a couple times and Dillon cleverly brought him up in conversation here and there. In September 2020, I heard he was in town for a wedding (s/o to Dan & Kelsey) and I gathered the courage (somewhat liquid) to text him one night. Once he FINALLY responded (the next morning) he immediately asked me to go to dinner with him sometime and we haven't gone a single day without talking since then. He came to visit us every other weekend or more, he developed a beautiful relationship with Luella. He eventually moved back from Texas, we did some not-stressful-at-all house hunting, he asked me to marry him in there somewhere, here we are! Life is strange and beautiful. Thanks for being along for the ride!