We're excited to celebrate with you!

On the first day of college, Matt Mills and Noelle Mitchell walked into art history class and did not know that they would get married. During their three other classes together that semester, they still did not know. In fact, through the first few months of class, Matt did not even consider the possibility of dating, insisting to this day that Noelle is out of his league. While Noelle was also not thinking of dating, she determined to make friends with the skinny, somewhat nerdy boy in her classes. She started inviting him to study with herself, Layton Coker, and Grace Gilmour. He obliged, happy to be included, and soon the four became fast friends. Matt and Noelle started forming a unique relationship early on; one Saturday, Matt found himself without ready food and queried whether Noelle had any to spare. She did not know that saying yes to that request would lead to her sharing home-cooked meals with the same boy a year or two later.

The following spring, Matt and Noelle had several more classes together and continued to become closer friends. Noelle thought that Matt was sweet, smart, and funny, as she apparently told her roommates. Matt, in keeping with male etiquette, told his roommate nothing. But when Matt heard her say that he was “husband material,” he was rooted to the floor. It could not be that such a bright and beautiful girl thought of him in that way. He took a while to gather his own thoughts and senses (too long, perhaps) but eventually made his feelings known. Then, as friends, parents, and even some professors will attest, they started dating—but didn’t call it that until the middle of the summer. Since then, Matt and Noelle have been growing steadily together in love. They went on dates to art museums and concerts, spent their first full semester together at Baylor and almost on a whim decided to study in Washington, DC for the spring. They gradually got the feel of city life and were looking forward to the cherry blossoms when a pandemic forced their sudden departure. Matt and Noelle quarantined together upon their return and then learned how to watch movies and have conversations long-distance for several months. Everything went swimmingly (in their relationship, at least). Along the way, they realized they would get married. It seemed as natural as could be. They began to talk about the eventual proposal but figured it should probably wait until at least the following summer.

The time went extraordinarily quickly. Matt toyed with the idea of proposing in the mountains, but he figured that suggesting such a trip himself would be too obvious. So he asked Grace to suggest New Mexico or Colorado as feasible destinations for the friend trip that they had always wanted to take. Noelle loved the idea, and so they planned for museums and gardens in Santa Fe and mountains and rivers in southern Colorado. Noelle thought it was purely a friend trip, right up until they were standing on a hilltop overlooking Santa Fe and she noticed that Matt’s heart was beating fast. That was when she knew. As they finish their senior year at Baylor together, they look forward to the rest of their lives together and cannot wait to celebrate their marriage with their dearest family and friends this summer. ~ Love Story by Matt Mills