We're Gettin' Married, Y'all!

Joe and Makayla first met in junior high at a track meet in good ol' Tarkio, Missouri. There was some loud Tarkio girl, laughing, being a 'social butterfly' with her Tarkio and Rock Port friends, who caught the ears and eyes of Rock Port boy, Joe Ridley. A mutual friend of Makayla and Joe's, Jordan Thomas, gave Joe the scoop on the girl he was curious about. Naturally, Jordan being the great 'mutual' friend she was, told Makayla about the tall Tennessee boy who asked about her. And that is where the first spark of interest began... As fate would have it, Makayla and her family ended up moving to Rock Port during her eighth grade summer, where she would start her freshman year with the class of 2011, which Joe Ridley was in. They were fourteen years old and head-over-heels in love with each other when they first began dating in 2007. Let's fast forward a little bit... the next four years, Joe and Makayla shared lots of good, bad, great, and not-so-great memories of the ups and downs of high school. Then came senior year, where Joe and Makayla ended up going separate ways for the next 5 years...

It wasn't until 2014 when Joe and Makayla finally became 'friends' on Facebook again. Having ended things in not the greatest way their senior year, and creating two very different lives through the years, this was a big deal. There wasn't much communication, but Joe having sent that friend request cracked open the door to the possibility of a friendship again. Obviously, Makayla wasn't going to say the first word. It didn't take long until Facebook messages turned into snapchats, and then text messages. Later on, phone calls lasting hours at a time. Joe had decided to move back to Atchison County in 2015. And then, around September, Farm 2015 happened. Joe and Makayla decided to hang out, just as friends, with no intentions of anything more, for the first time in 5 years. They had a great time catching up and hanging out. That weekend brought back the good times, the bad times, and unexpectedly, the love. They denied it for a few more days, but quickly realized that after all the time spent apart, after the different lives they led, there was still an undeniable love between them.