Our story starts in one of the kindergarten classrooms of Roosevelt Elementary. Collin was the shy boy with the bright blue eyes... the one that Ashley was enthralled with. To Collin, Ashley was the awkward girl with major cooties. The year was spent with Ashley writing "Mrs. Collin" in all of her notebooks and drawing hearts for the first crush she ever had, and with Collin remaining completely oblivious.

Fast forward to seventh grade, Ashley and Collin had not seen each other since the last day of Kindergarten. When they were twelve, they ended up riding the same bus home from school! Ashley sat in the front, and Collin was more of a back of the bus kind of guy. The kid in the seat next to Collin yelled something mean about another girl on the bus, but Ashley thought Collin said it, so she marched back and yelled at Collin. Later that night, Collin found Ashley on Instagram and sent her a message explaining that it wasn't him, and Ashley was mortified. Though, as embarrassed as she was, she still smiled at the thought of the boy with the blue eyes.

A few years (and relationships) later, Collin and Ashley were in the summer between their Freshman and Sophomore years of high school. Ashley and her sister, Katie were FINALLY allowed to get snapchat one day, and later they went on a bike ride. They stopped on the trail and when Ash checked her phone, Collin popped up as a suggested friend on snapchat! She sent him a message, which he opened and never replied. She tried sending three more messages that summer, all of which totally flopped.

Finally, were getting to the good part! On Collin's 16th birthday, Ashley decided she was going to send him one last message. She couldn't stop thinking about this boy, but if he didn't answer this last message, she was going to (try to) move on. Alas, she sent the message..... AND HE REPLIED!

They began talking in every spare moment they had. They even figured out a way to talk on their computers at school, so not even class could get in the way. They even facetimed every night until one of them fell asleep.

On Valentine's Day of 2016, Collin took Ashley on their first date. They saw a movie together, ate popcorn, and held hands... it was perfect.

A rule in Ashley's family is that if anyone wants to date the girls, they have to ask their dad's permission. Collin had planned on asking, but Ashley's family was so taken with him that her dad sent Collin a message during the movie saying, "I know you planned on asking, but if you would like to ask her to be your girlfriend, I am okay with it."

Sitting in the car, in the movie theater parking lot, Collin asked Ashley to be his girlfriend. You guessed it, she said yes.

They then went to Collin's mom's house to hang out more, and on the way there Collin stopped at Starbucks and ordered two white chocolate mocha Frappuccino's. He gave one to Ashley, and left the other in the cupholder. When she asked him why he wasn't drinking it, he said he got it for his mom because he knew she liked it and thought it would make her happy.

When they got to his house, they watched Grease, and had their first kiss.

From that day on, Ashley knew that Collin was the man that she was going to marry.

The rest of their story is a whirlwind. Together, navigated through high school, friends, deciding on their futures, moving away for the first time, and even Ashley's multitude of hair colors.

Their time was filled with nature walks, day trips, weekends on the boat, watching movies, and playing about 50,000 games of cribbage.

Collin proposed to Ashley in April, 2021. They were on a road trip in Utah, in Arches National Park. They drove up to the highest point they could find to watch the sun set and wait for the stars to come out. They sat to enjoy the view, and after stargazing for a bit, Collin turned to Ashley, reminisced and spoke about their past, present, and future together. Then he got down on one knee, and pulled out the most beautiful ring. She said YES!!

So there you have it, that's our past! Thanks for being a part of our present, and we are hoping that you will join us on August 20th, 2022, to celebrate the beginning of our future.