We're Getting Married!

Funny enough, we actually "met" multiple times before we actually started to get to know each other. The very first time we met was when we got a ride to church in the same car our freshman year at UNC. Although James doesn't remember much about it, I (Jessica) remember thinking, "this guy is kind of cute." We went to Bojangles after church with the rest of our car, and that was the end of that. We saw each other around campus several other times after that, but it wasn't until sophomore year that we actually introduced ourselves again. I had the same lunch break as some of my friends, and we had all planned to eat together in Top of Lenoir, the lovely dining hall at UNC. My friend Lexie (she deserves a huge shout-out!) told us that her friend James was going to join us for lunch if that was okay. Of course, I was secretly excited, but pretended to not remember him as we re-introduced ourselves. The rest, as they say, is history. We ate lunch together with our friends multiple times a week until we started showing each other ~special~ attention.

It's hard to summarize nearly two and a half years of our relationship before the proposal, but all of it has been a journey of us becoming best friends and growing and maturing so much alongside each other. I (Jessica) like to tease James that I was the one who made the first move, although that isn't necessarily true. James had asked me to hang out in his dorm room in Morrison and watch Parks & Recreation several times. At the time, I was in my sorority Pi Beta Phi, and we had a cocktail called Country Christmas coming up. I took a leap and asked James if he would be my date, and he happily obliged. :) After a fun night at my cocktail, James asked me if I wanted to go to dinner with him some time. For our first date, we went to Longhorn Steakhouse and a Psalm 100 Acapella concert afterwards. After a few more dates, James officially asked me to be his girlfriend on a romantic coffee date to Café Driade. Since then, we've made so many wonderful memories together, including plenty of basketball games, a picnic in the Arboretum, an unforgettable one-year anniversary in Raleigh and a two-year anniversary at the Biltmore Estate. Of course, the most wonderful memory thus far has been getting engaged and celebrating with our friends and family.