Before I met Paige, I had never told any girl that I loved her other than my Mom and sister. The words "I love you" have always been a super big deal to me and not ones that i was willing to just throw around to anyone who came along. When I first started dating Paige more than 2 years ago, I wanted to wait as long as I could to say those words to her. I knew that once I said them, I could never take them back, and imagined waiting to say them until I was ready to propose. There was only one problem with that line of thought: I actually did love Paige after just a short few months. It was absolutely insane how quickly she went from being the girl I was terrified to ask on a date, to being the girl I knew that I wanted to marry. Cliché?.... Well I don't really care, because it's the truth. Paige and I both walked away from our first date thinking "Holy cow, we literally have so much in common!". Our interests, passions, and experiences seemed to have so much overlap that, no joke, I went home and told my roommates "She's literally me, but a girl". I'm very happy to say today that I was very wrong with my initial conclusion. Paige and I are super duper different from each other in so many ways. What the Lord has shown me over the past two years, is that it's those differences between us that make it so much fun to love her. If we processed emotions the exact same way, only liked one genre of music, and had the same opinions about every aspect of life, I feel like life could get pretty boring pretty quick. I'm so thankful for Paige being exactly who she is and that I get to go on loving her the rest of my life in all of her beauty, wisdom, strength, compassion, and beauty. Anyway enough of the corny stuff. This was supposed to be a story huh? I asked Paige out on a date when we were both in college. We dated some. We got engaged. Now we're getting married! How sick is that!?

Brady and I met through a prank some of my friends pulled in December 2019. After a night of chasing my bed around Blacksburg, we stood outside my apartment, shook hands, and introduced ourselves. I didn’t think much of this interaction. To me he was just the cool older guy who joined some guys on a prank to steal some girl’s bed. A few weeks later while hanging out with some friends it was accidentally shared with me that Brady had asked someone if I was single. I couldn’t believe it. THE Brady Becker. The cool, older guy ACTUALLY remembered me after our brief meeting and wanted to know if I was single? No shot. I tried brushing it off, but I couldn’t get him out of my mind. I knew nothing about Brady but wanted to so badly. I spent all of winter break thinking about Brady and praying for him and whatever potential relationship we may have in the future. I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but I knew I was very interested. When we returned to Blacksburg in the spring, I started noticing Brady being more intentional about talking with me in group settings. It was only ever small talk, but that small talk reassured that I wanted to know him and spend time with him. A few weeks later, Brady stopped me after a Cru large group meeting and asked if I wanted to get coffee. He’ll tell you that I was “really excited” because “I said it a million times”. I’ll tell you that I was shaking from excitement and practically blacked out – I don’t remember anything from that conversation. The next week we went to coffee, and it was incredible. I walked away shocked by how much we had in common. I was dying to spend more time with him and learn more. Later that week we went to dinner, and I was blown away again. Brady was so intentional and thoughtful with the questions he asked. A week later we began dating and the rest is history. Brady, I fall more in love with you every day and I cannot wait to spend my whole life loving you.