We're getting married!

Rewind to the spring of 2012. It was the second semester of freshman year at Bishop Kelley. Ryan and Claire finally cross paths in Oklahoma History. Thank goodness we both have last names that began with an M because that meant we got to sit right next to each other every single day. We would flirt and work together but then just ended up going our separate ways for the summer. At this point, we still didn’t have each other’s numbers. Our first semester of sophomore year, we luckily had theology class together. And yet again, the seating chart was alphabetical. So you know what that meant?! Claire and Ryan right next to each other every single day. Eventually, Ryan figured out a way to get Claire’s number from a middle school friend who was also in the class. That homecoming on October 27, we officially started dating. Ryan will never live down his infamous line as a way to ask Claire out ... “So are we like boyfriend and girlfriend now?” When it came down to graduate, it was bittersweet because that meant we would have to learn a new normal. We weren’t going to let long-distance end us so we navigated through 5 years of being 600 miles apart. A couple of months of those 5 years consisted of strictly letters as our only form of communication while Ryan went through basic training. Now those letters are special keepsakes that we love to sift through. FaceTime and coordinating our calendars was the bread and butter of making it work. Our goal was to try and see each other every 5-6 weeks. Sometimes it wouldn’t work out and we would have to go 8-9 weeks apart but then that made seeing each other that much more special. Being high school sweethearts with long-distance AND the added military factor, we like to joke that our love story could be a romcom. Almost EIGHT years later ... we’re finally becoming HUSBAND & WIFE and could not be more happy and excited to start our life together. Adios long distance!!!