We're getting married!

Sean and I met in July of 2016 at Cassie and Tyler Weber’s wedding in Windsor, Colorado. During their reception, this complete stranger in a flannel shirt and cowboy boots with a man-bun asked me to dance. We shared a few slow dances then went our separate ways for the rest of the evening. Quite the Cinderella story, however not so much as a glass slipper (aka phone number) was left behind. In the following days, Sean looked through all of Cassie and Tyler’s Facebook friends named Lauren, finally finding my profile and sending me a friend request. We exchanged a few messages back and forth but didn’t stay in touch throughout that fall semester. At that time, I was finishing my undergraduate studies at UNC in Greeley, CO and Sean was about to begin his junior year at Midland University in Fremont, NE. I summed up our meeting as a nice, one-time moment of connection and assumed I’d never see him again… December of 2016 rolled around and out of the blue I got a message from Sean saying he’d be in Denver for the weekend visiting his dad and asked if I’d be interested in going to an Avalanche game with him. I thought, why not, free Avs game, sure! He neglected to mention that his dad would also be joining, and yes, Mike did crash our first official date! Our first date was memorable for many reasons, but most importantly was the drive home. After the game, we walked out to a blizzard and there was already half a foot of snow on the ground. If you know me, you know that I have debilitating anxiety when it comes to being on the roads in the snow. Sean being the calm, cool, and confident Wyoming driver that he is, assured me that he’d get us home safely… And after nearly 5 hours on I-25 in a blizzard, he did. I, of course, had tried to hide how completely panicked I was the entire night but wasn’t very successful. I thought for sure this guy would never want to see me again after I had a complete emotional breakdown on our first date... Wrong again! Sean asked to see me again on his way back to Fremont for spring semester. We talked for hours in the parking lot of my apartment and before leaving he asked if I’d be willing to give a long-distance relationship a shot. I wasn’t sure and needed convincing from family and friends (shoutout to my big brother, Chris, for the ultimate advice!). Sean understood and we kept talking for the following weeks. I had doubts about a long distance relationship and asked a lot of “what ifs” to which Sean met me with positivity and reassurance time and time again. Sean saw something in me and in us that I couldn’t see at the time, and I thank God every day that he did and gently persisted. On New Year’s Eve 2016, I finally decided to take the leap and now here we are, eight years later. Sean and I have been through a lot, to say the least, in our eight years together, including three and a half cumulative years of long distance, three higher education degrees, one residency and specialist certification, losing grandparents, losing my father, adopting and losing our first fur baby, job changes, and many moves. We’ve experienced unimaginable joy, pure devotion and pride, and have also weathered unpredictable grief and hardships together. Through it all, our love has grown stronger and deeper and is uniquely ours. We are so excited to continue building our family and sharing all the incredible adventures to come.