I don't exactly remember the first time Ethan and I actually met. I had seen him and his identical twin, Ben, around at school and RUF, a campus ministry. (They were six-foot, blonde, identical twins... kinda hard to miss.) But I remember hanging out with mutual friends in a library study room. I was sitting next to him. I was acting crazy and goofing off and I realized I had never even met this guy. "Oh," I said, laughing, "I'm Ashlynn, by the way." "I'm Ethan." We gave a playful handshake and continued on as normal. I felt so comfortable with him. He never felt like a stranger.

We got to know each other through mutual friends and dance events (English Country Dancing, mostly). Soon, we were a part of the same friend group. But we never had a friendship on an individual basis. He was kinda just always... there. I remember noticing that he was cute. And I remember thinking that if he asked me out I would say yes. But I was absolutely convinced that it would never ever happen... ever. It just wasn't. So I wrote it off.

One spring day, I got my daily Chronicles sandwich and sat outside the caf. I texted our friend group chat, and mentioned I was there if anyone wanted to join me. Ethan responded. I was surprised. But hey, a chance to talk with a friend. A buddy. A pal. And he (I found out later) thought the same way. A new friend. Cool!

He came out and we started talking. And we didn't stop... for an hour and a half. In that time, in our usual comfortable manner, I told him a lot about my passions, especially for discipleship. At some point in this, Ethan decided, "This is rare. I gotta go for it."

I saw him get nervous for a few seconds. I became intrigued.

"Hey, this conversation has been great. You wanna continue it over coffee sometime?"

My mind screamed. I smiled. "Yeah, sure!"

The next Friday, Ethan picked me up and took me to a nice bistro downtown. We talked for four hours.

And the rest is history, I guess!

We became "official" on May 4th, 2023, after Ethan had lunch with my dad. So by the time of our wedding, we will have been together for about two years. In that time, we have had a LOT of conversations, asked a lot of questions, experienced a lot of amazing things, and got to know one other better. It has been great. I am so thankful for our relationship. I know that there is SO much more adventure to come... I can't wait!

If you are interested in hearing some more fun stories about our relationship, check out the podcast episode Ethan and I did on Lives Aligned. Lives Aligned is a podcast series I produced. It dives into the conceptual truths behind dating. It is a good podcast full of wisdom from amazing people answering questions like "What am I called to do as an individual (dating or not)?", "What is love?", "What are boundaries?", and "What actually IS dating?". It is available on Spotify if you'd like to check it out.

Can't wait to make more memories with all of you!! <3 Thank you so much for being a part of our special day. We love you!