These were some of the words going through Monica’s head when she realized their night out together wasn’t just two friends hanging out, but was indeed a date. Well maybe it wasn’t that harsh, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Joel and Monica met through Monica’s sister Melody. Melody and Joel met at college and once he started hanging around the Rausers more often he started talking with and getting to know Monica. The more he knew her the more he realized just how amazing she really was, and he had to do something about it. So he did what anyone else would do, he took her to San Fransisco one evening to see “Jurassic Park, live in concert” to see if they would get along if they were on their own. (Because if someone doesn’t like dinosaurs is it really worth it?) It wasn’t officially a date, but the evening still went great. A month or so passed by before anything else happened, eventually Joel decided it was time to stop beating around the bush and man up. Or, as his mom put it while she was offering him some advice: “Joel, stop being a chicken” and the plan was in motion. They had spent the day hiking and had just finished having ice cream when Joel told Monica how he felt and wanted to move their relationship to the next step. Surprise and sudden shock swiftly set in. This was right when she figured out that it wasn’t just an outing between friends in San Fransisco that night and the betrayal set in. It quickly passed as she realized that after all this time she was starting to like the tall dork that stumbled into her life like a baby giraffe. Thankfully, she decided to keep him around and they began officially dating in January 2019. The rest is history, and we’re so glad you will be joining us for our wedding on July 4th, 2021.