We're Getting Married!

My name is Thomas, and this is the story of how I met my fiancée. When we met, I was a student at Northpoint Bible College. The college organized several trips for evangelism and community service. In May 2018, I went on the trip to the Netherlands. One of the events we attended was called Opwekking, and I volunteered on the security team doing backstage security. During one of my shifts, Ana Clara, a very beautiful girl who was volunteering on the backstage hospitality team, brought me water. From that moment, her and I began to talk. We spent the next four days hanging out as much as we could. We followed each other on Instagram, friended on Facebook, and exchanged phone numbers. While we were at Opwekking, we went on our first date. It was nothing elaborate. We just went to get waffles together, but it was the first “spark” in our relationship. On the night before we both left Opwekking, we stayed up together talking until 3am. We saw each other one more time before I came back to the United States, and we kept texting each other and FaceTiming for the next seven months. We had become close friends, and we both knew that we had strong feelings for each other. In December 2018, Ana came to visit me and my family, and we decided to officially become boyfriend and girlfriend on December 31, 2018.

Thomas and I spent the next year traveling a lot to see each other, and I went to visit him last December to celebrate Christmas and our first year together. Before getting there, I asked him if it was possible for us to go to New Orleans because it’s a city I always wanted to visit. From the moment we got there, I noticed he was acting weird, and I told him I knew he was up to something. On New Year’s Eve which, is also our anniversary, he took me on a date. Then we went for a walk, and he proposed in the most adorable way in Jackson Square. After asking him a bunch of times if he was sure, I finally said, “yes!” Everything was perfect, and we even got a bottle of sparkling wine from a stranger.

We had an elopement on July 12 2022 in New Orleans. Because of many many reasons we decided that would be the best for us. It was very small and intimate and we were really happy. After that, we had dinner at Hard Rock, one of Ana's favorite places.