We're Getting Married!

We met on an online dating platform called Bumble. I (Niki) often describes that site as the Target of the dating world whereas most other platforms are more like a Walmart! We both were attracted to one anothers love for the Lord and one anothers passion to serve Him. After talking back and forth for 20 days Justin finally asked me out on a proper date. FINALLY! haha!. Justin came to pick me up at work and we shared a lovely dinner together and talked for hours. We went to the movies and laughed the night away, watching "Game Night" and finally ended the evening sitting in a parking lot at EKU talking about anything and everything. We both left that night feeling like this was something special and Justin soon texted me asking when he could see me again. I guess you could say the rest is history. Since beginning our relationship on Febuary 23, 2018 we have had a whirlwind romance. We have traveled the world together, laughed, cried, argued, and served in church with one another. We have grown closer together, closer to Christ, and we are thrilled to start this next chapter in our lives together!

I (Niki) have always adored fireworks. The 4th of July is one of my all time favorite holidays and I am a fan of anything that glitters. In July of 2018, Justin bought some sparklers for us to play with outside. We tried writing our names with the sparklers and taking pictures by using Justin's fancy camera. Well he took a shot at writing his name and asked me to see if it turned out. When I looked at the viewing screen I see the words "I Love You." I immediately started crying and ran to give Justin the biggest kiss and whisper the words back to him through my tears. How perfect that he would use one of my favorite things to tell me that he loved me for the first time! I have always dreamed of a romantic caring man and God has given me one of the best!

If you know Niki then you know she is historically late for EVERYTHING! Try as she might she cannot make it on time to anything except work and most of the time church haha! Well the day Justin asked her to marry him he had a lovely surprise planned. However, Niki spent the morning going to get her monthly massage and running errands as she thought they were only going to the pumpkin patch and then the Annual Hutchins Halloween party later that night. When she got to Justin's house at 1:30 and started putting on her make-up casually asked Justin what time they needed to leave. To which Justin responded, "what time is it now?" "well it's 1:30ish.." Justin: WE'VE GOT TO GO NOW!! HURRY, HURRY, PUT ON YOUR MAKE-UP QUICK!" As he dashes around the house scrambling to get everything ready. Again Niki just assumed they were going to a simple pumpkin patch so she had no clue why the rush was needed. Well as they get on the road to the "pumpkin patch" Justin calls the venue and asked if they would wait the answer was apparently a firm "NO!" By this time Niki suspected that Justin had been planning to propose and she got so upset when she realized she had missed her own proposal! However Justin, like he so often does, was quick on his feet in thinking of a solution. He turned them around and headed for Evans Orchard. After they arrived they went to the petting zoo and then hopped on the hay ride to the pumpkin patch. While Niki was searching for the perfect pumpkin, Justin asked a girl if she would take their picture. Suddendly he was down on one knee asking Niki to spend the rest of her life with him. She cried, they kissed, and she said something to the effect of "what the heck? SHUT UP!! OH MY WORD ARE YOU FOR REAL?! YES!" (at least we are pretty sure a yes was in there at some point haha!) So I guess you could say we are all lucky this wedding is happening as Niki missed the orignal proposal, but thankfully Justin managed to still pull off a beautiful surprise!