We're still getting married! Just a little bit different than planned

If you ask either of us, we don’t actually remember the first time we met but we know that it was at our church’s young adult group. As Chris states it, the first memory he has of seeing me was as a blur going into the kitchen, while I was serving at church. It wasn’t until we went on our first mission’s trip to the Dominican Republic in August 2017 that we actually remember having a conversation together. After we returned from that trip, we began an internship together with a small group of others at our church, learning Bible Doctrine and Christian Worldview. From that point forward, we became really good friends. By the end of October, I realized I really liked him and not so much as just a friend. In January 2018, we both acknowledged that we had feelings for each other but we wanted to respect our internship and the time we dedicated to growing our relationship with God and not think about dating until we finished in May. If you ask anyone that was around us during that time, they can tell you that was not an easy season for either of us but we are so thankful for it now. During that time of waiting, we were able to both deepen our personal relationships with God and our friendship. Both of which are pivotal to our relationship now. God’s timing for when we began to date was perfect, even though we didn’t see it that way at the beginning!

Our first date was a long time coming. We finally made it to the end of our internship in the beginning of May and I was just waiting for him to ask me out. Finally, Chris called me two days before this date and asked me out to dinner and I was over the moon. He wanted to keep the location and what we were doing a surprise so he told me he would pick me up. When he picked me up, he came bearing two of my favorite things: a bouquet of flowers and my favorite Starbucks drink. From there we went to dinner in Downtown Albany where I was too nervous to eat followed by a slice of cheesecake from a local shop (which I had no problem eating). Once we bought that, we walked around the Empire Plaza and talked for hours! By the end of the night, Chris asked if we could do this again and the rest is history.

This day started off with a lie. My best friend, Becca, told me we were going to go to Saratoga to visit a wedding venue for her wedding and that we had to be there by 2pm. By the time we got there, it was 1:40 but we hadn’t eaten lunch. I tried to convince her to push the visit so we could eat but she was insistent on going on time. (Little did I know, Chris told her to meet at 2). The visit was in the Saratoga State Park but instead of walking through it from the normal front entrance, Becca made us walk around it to come in from the back. By this point, I was annoyed and confused why she was insistent on going this way, but we were there for her (or so I thought) so I sucked it up. We finally entered the park and she told me that they were to meet the lady for the venue visit in a pavilion that was in the park. I saw it and asked if that was the one, and tried to imagine how she would get married in this park. While I was being critical of the space and thinking of ways to make it work for a ceremony, we got closer to the pavilion when I finally noticed Chris standing there. I immediately stopped and looked at Becca and asked her “What is going on?” at least 3 times before she pushed me to go to Chris. When I got to him, I was in shock and couldn’t believe what was happening so I kept hugging hin and telling him I loved him. With our good friend playing Ed Sheeran’s “How Would You Feel” on guitar, Chris gave a small speech before getting down on one knee and asking me to marry him. I obviously said yes! We are so excited for this next season of our life and to get to spend the rest of our lives together. We can’t wait to celebrate with all of you!