Please Join us in Celebrating

We met on the second day of our junior year in high school at a small school called Colorado Springs Early Colleges. Our mutual friend, Ceci introduced us to one another at lunch, and little did we know we would become the best of friends. After only knowing each other for a little while, we soon realized our birthdays were on the same day and ended up celebrating together about a week later. Mark, being the thoughtful person he is, brought both himself and Amy birthday balloons on August 30th and it was a day we would never forget. After a day of other students whacking the balloons, we knew we had a special connection. Every year after that we would meet up on our birthdays to reconnect and celebrate together. Unfortunately, over the years, we lost touch more and more. Mark was off in Idaho pursuing his Bachelor’s in social work and youth ministry, while Amy stayed in Colorado Springs working on her associate’s degree. In 2020, as crazy as a year it was, we ended up reconnecting. Unable to hide no more, Mark revealed his feelings for Amy and we both ended up starting our relationship that September.

Across the country from one another, our nights consisted of FaceTiming one another and getting to know each other on a deeper level. On September 15, 2020, Amy finally confessed her feelings for Mark and they decided to continue in their relationship as both of us felt that God was calling us for something deeper. Some of our favorite stories start with the dreaded Keurig box. This all came about when Mark decided to video call in his car where he kept his Keurig box (in order to easily store his Keurig upon moving). Every night before greeting Mark, Amy would say hi to the Keurig box. Another one of our favorite stories has to do with our wedding hashtag (you may have wondered what on earth #unleadedlettuce had to do with anything.) Our inside joke entails creative ways to travel without using a car. Hence, we came up with fueling a giraffe by sending lettuce through the mail. Mark coined the mailed-gross-week-old lettuce as “unleaded lettuce,” and for some reason, it just stuck.

Amy told me from the beginning that whenever we got engaged that I wouldn't be able to suprise her and get her to cry. I made it my mission to give her the best proposal. This is that story... I think I thought about what I wanted to do about a thousand times. Each time that I thought of something I would think "Man, Amy's gonna know" or "Amy's totally gonna see that coming!" I wanted Amy to realize how much I loved her, what I loved about her, and how much God loves her. Then I realized the perfect solution: A TIMELINE! (One time Amy and I started making a timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.) Amy is a visual person she loves seeing things in the real world and connecting the dots. I realized this was perfect! But how was I going to do it? Finally, in September 2021, I figured it out. I was gonna make her 3 timelines. 1. Our relationship from high school friends to our engagement day. 2. All the things I love about Amy 3. Every promise from God about love It took months and 300 pages of printed paper, but through it all reflecting on our relationship, writing love notes, and studying Scripture; I knew that I was gonna be able to show her how much she meant to me. There was one piece missing though something to show her. To make ends meet, I made a video and asked her family to be a part of our engagement. Amy's family is central to her life and to mine, so I made a video of them showing just how much they loved her and supported her. That day... Through twists and turns and a lot of family help, Amy was surprised at how much I put into everything on our engagement day. She came downstairs after a crazy day and saw the wall of papers, the timeline of our love, and watched the video of all her friends and family. I proposed and she shook her head, yes, and the rest is history. Oh yeah, and she totally cried.