L & J

Our story shows that if something is meant to be, it will be. Looking back on the nine years we've spent together, we see a path full of love, a little craziness, and a lot of growth that brought us to this moment.   We’ve known each other for almost a decade, but our story began in the halls of Hays High. Justin was a senior, and Lauren was a freshman. The timing felt impossible, yet something about her always caught his attention. She played hard to get from the start, and Justin will deny how much that worked on him, but there was something real there, something worth pursuing.   We started talking in the fall of 2016, and by November, we were officially together. Those early months were filled with everything young love should be: endless time together, silly inside jokes, nights we didn’t want to end, and the thrill of finding someone who felt different.   Justin graduated from high school and went to Kansas State. Suddenly, we were two teenagers trying to make a long-distance relationship work. We loved each other, but being young and in love often comes with challenges. Distance was tougher than we expected, and we realized we both had some growing up to do. Over the next few years, we fell into a pattern of coming together, pulling apart, learning about ourselves, and somehow always finding our way back to each other.   Every summer, we reconnected, and each year brought new challenges, new phases, and new lessons. We learned to love each other through each transition, from high school to college, from college to adulthood, in different towns, with different priorities. Even when we weren’t officially together, our bond remained strong. Looking back, it’s clear that each time we weren’t together prepared us for the version of us that was meant to last.   After graduating in 2020, Lauren then started school at Kansas State. Finally, in 2021, everything seemed to fall into place. We were older, more stable, and completely sure about each other. We committed, and we’ve been together ever since. Justin finished school and moved to Kansas City for a while, then returned to Manhattan so we could finally live in the same place again. We shared a year there, and when Lauren graduated from Kansas State, we knew exactly where we wanted to go next: home.   In May 2024, we moved back to Hays, back to family, back to the town where our story first began, and back to the life we always pictured building together. Now, we get to spend real, everyday moments together after years of long distance, and we don’t take a single minute for granted.   If you asked us back in 2016 whether this was the beginning of a forever story, we probably wouldn’t have known what to say. But we felt something special from the very start, something steady, something real, that kept pulling us back together through every stage of growing up.   Nine years later, all the bumps in our journey make perfect sense. They led us here, to planning a wedding, building a home in our hometown, and getting ready to start the rest of our lives together.   We are excited to celebrate with you all. Thank you for being part of our journey and our future.