After a year of ignoring each other at church, using dating apps to no success, and watching their best friends (Conner and Anna) fall in love with each other, the unthinkable happened, Rebecca and Riley matched on Bumble (thanks Elizabeth for taking Rebecca’s phone and swiping for her- she was freaking out and needed some help). To Riley, this piqued his interest, but he brushed it off as nothing more than an awkward interaction. To Rebecca, she contemplated finding a new church, changing identities or fleeing the country to avoid confronting the situation, all while realizing the feelings that this exchange uncovered. Between the spark set off by the Bumble incident and the incessant pushing by tens of people, Riley and Rebecca finally started talking. It started out small. A "hey" here. A simple "you going tonight?" there. Until Riley blew the conversation wide open with an opening text riddled with Napoleon Dynamite GIFs. After two weeks of novel-length text messages back and forth, Rebecca informed Riley that she had LOTS of free time over the weekend. It took Riley an hour to decipher this and respond with, “do you want to get coffee?” Over the next week the novel-length texts turned into five hour long phone calls every night. Their friends could practically smell the giddiness. On Valentines day a week later they made it official. The conversation went something like this. Riley: We should probably talk about making this official at some point. Rebecca: Yeah probably. Riley: So do you want to make this official? Rebecca: Sure. Yeah. She said sure. But she meant it. And she’ll never live it down - RD She was TRYING to be nonchelant, Riley. Hey, it did the job, right? - RP

As a short amount of time passed, they grew closer and closer together and quickly realized they were in it for the long haul. Their connection was unavoidable, which lead to fielding countless told-you-so’s they heard from everyone around them. On May 31st they took a suprise detour to Chattanooga where they had previously made a very memorable trip with friends but Riley had plans to make this trip unforgettable. The couple galavanted around downtown as Riley lead Rebecca to strategically placed flowers and notes around the city. Shout out to my boy Conner Adams for sneaking around Chattanooga, taking pictures, and placing the gifts - RD I legit could NOT figure out how the flowers kept appearing -RP The journey ended at the very restaurant, and the very table, where Riley first told Rebecca he loved her. There she found the final flower and read the final note only to look up and find Riley on one knee. And well, you can guess how the rest went. .