Our story is one of crossing paths, wrong turns and final destinations.

They were just children the first time Ashley ever laid eyes on Tyler. She was probably in the third grade, and he would have been in the fifth. They never spoke to each other, but she can remember wondering why that boy got to be behind the ice cream counter at the TY Star gas station.

Their paths crossed again years later. Tyler was in college and Ashley worked as a cashier at Flippin Wal-Mart. He would go through her checkout line every time she was working. In his head, each time was going to be the time he would introduce himself and try to start a conversation. Instead, it would be a simple hello and the typical cashier customer service scripting. He would answer her questions, pay and leave. Tyler would walk out and regret not saying more but he would never walk back in.

Time passes on and their lives moved forward. Graduations, marriage, separations, divorce, births and loss of loved ones. Years later Tyler is scrolling through Facebook, and he sees a woman pop up on his suggested friends list. He thought to himself, that looks just like the girl from Wal-Mart. He decides to add her, and she accepts the friend request. There is a brief conversation, but it doesn’t go anywhere. A little later, they talk again, and this was the last time their paths were separate.

The conversation continues past a day or two with flirting here and there. A cat and mouse game ensued. Ashley finally asked Tyler if he was going to ask her out on a date or not. Tyler was embarrassed that Ashley was the one to make the “first” move. Tyler still was shy and did not ask her for an actual date. Luckily for Tyler, Ashley was not quick to give up. She would always ask if she just passed him when she saw a police car in town. One evening she asked Tyler if he was sitting at the Twin Lakes Baptist Church, and he replied, “yes”. Despite all her anxiety and fear, Ashley decided to turn around. She pulled in next to Tyler and said, “Hi”. Very few words were spoken initially but both became more at ease with time. For those of you reading this, the rest is history that you all are apart of. Little did we know that almost four years later this is where we would be. Who would have thought that Ashley would be marrying the boy that was behind the ice cream counter and that Tyler would be marrying the Walmart cashier?