It all starts at a Wednesday night choir practice. Both of us were new to the Sarasota area and by God’s divine plan, He lead us to the same church. I have always heard about “love at first sight” but I never thought it was true, until I saw Walter. From the moment I saw him sitting in the back row of the room, I just knew. I fell hard and fast for Walt and I prayed that he felt the same. Everyone around me could tell that I had fallen for Walt, which was surprising because before I saw him I was sure that I didn’t want to be in a relationship with anyone. For Walter, that feeling happened a few months later at the Manatee County Fair. - Liz It is amazing how God ordered our paths and we wound up at the same church around the same time. After hearing that I was moving to Sarasota, the worship pastor in Asheville connected me to his mentor that had recently moved to become a pastor in Palmetto. When we began talking at the Manatee County Fair, our connection was instant. After a series of dates being “foodies” and “friends”, it was obvious that both of us were meant to be! - Walt

Unlike most couples, both of us planned what seemed to be the perfect engagement. We had the location decided and season picked out, everything seemed like a fairytale. Until we were hit with the unexpected news that Walter needed to leave Florida and stay an entire month in North Carolina because of a work emergency. Which happened to be the month that we had the engagement planned. Words cannot describe the stress we were under trying to decide what to do. Finally, the day before Thanksgiving, we went on a special date to soak in the last few moments together. I was sure that he was going to wait to pop the question after he got back home, but boy was I wrong. On the date we went to one of our favorite restaurants on the island, walked the beach at sunset and then right when we were “going home” Walter had the idea to go to a bridge that we had gone to on one of our every first dates. This bridge is covered in lights at night and has a beautiful park under it. We went for a walk and I soon noticed that there was a tree in the middle of the park covered in twinkling lights. It didn’t take me long to realize what was happening. He got on one knee while I stood in a candle lit scene from a movie. It was perfect! Even though our first plan did not work out, looking back, it could not have been any better then it was. This whole story really shows God’s grace because little did we know at that time, Liz’s whole family got Covid-19 the week our first engagement plan was supposed to happen. We are beyond grateful that everything worked out like it did.

We are saying our vows at a private ceremony in North Carolina, with just our families joining us. The wedding will take place on June 5th, 2021.

Celebrating we our friends and family is very important to us! We are planning on having a celebration this coming Fall!