Wow, can’t believe I’m writing this: the Jacob and Steph story. Seven years ago, I asked Steph to be my girlfriend and she said no. The end... Obviously, that’s not the full story, but she did tell me no at first (a fact I still remind her of to this day). Before all of that, Steph and I went to Westfield High School together. We had mutual friends and classes together, but we really didn’t become friends until the summer going into senior year. We both signed up to go to a Young Life camp called Castaway in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. Steph and I started our friendship by sharing faith, and we really bonded on the bus ride home when we couldn’t stop laughing after making up games on the back of a Cheez-It’s box. I don’t think it made sense to anyone else, but we bonded over our weirdness and our ability to make something funny out of nothing. We remained friends from then on and Steph and I started hanging out a lot more. Later that November, I worked up the courage to ask her to be my girlfriend, but she denied me and told me that she wanted to “get to know me more” first. About a month later, she decided we could finally date and the rest was history...I asked her to prom in front of the whole school during the Mr. Westfield competition...We took on Purdue Greek life together with a million Kappa Sig, DG formals and barn dances...Now we are conquering the long distance part of our relationship as I started my first pharmaceutical job in New Jersey in July as she is finishing up physical therapy school in Indiana. I couldn’t imagine taking on life the last seven years without this incredible girl, as we made memories that we’ll cherish forever.

Eventually this led to 2019 when I started planning how to ask Steph to marry me. She had told me a couple years back that it was her dream since she was little to go to Paris. She casually mentioned that it would be cool to get engaged there, but more of a “in my dreams” type of way. I don’t think she ever thought I would actually do it. I wanted to surprise her, but she didn’t have her passport and I needed her to block off a week in her calendar. So I had my Dad to plan a fake trip for my graduation to Aruba. He asked Steph to come with us, but had her keep it a secret from me as it was supposed to be a “surprise for Jacob”. I should’ve picked somewhere a little less exciting because Steph told everyone she possibly could (except me) that she was going to Aruba in May. Luckily, Paris took the cake for Steph’s dream trip, and she couldn’t have been more excited when I told her where we were going. On May 14, 2019, outside of the Luxembourg Palace, I asked the most beautiful, intelligent, and strong-willed person I know to marry me, and thankfully she said yes the first time I asked. Paris was the icing on the cake to our engagement, and we can’t wait for what lies ahead of us. I can’t wait to officially make Steph a part of the Tebbe family. We are so excited and blessed to be celebrating our marriage at the church we both grew up attending in front of God and with our closest friends and family on August 8, 2020. We can’t wait to celebrate with you all!