Our Story

Friends.

Our story starts as many do. Friends first. We both graduated from Mounds View High School in 2018. We shared some mutual friends at the time… but didn’t know each other too well. Clara went on to Bethel and Noah went to the University of Minnesota. However, merging friend groups kept us in contact. We started as group friends, but sooner or later became best friends. Early on, we bonded over:

- Our love for hiking and traveling! We visited tons of National Parks and beautiful hikes across Tennessee, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Michigan, South Dakota, Virginia and so many in between... plus countless trips to the North Shore :).

- Music and Concerts! One of our favorite concerts ever was seeing The Lumineers at Somerset Amphitheater!!

- Faith. In July of 2021, Clara invited Noah to River Valley Church in Minneapolis. He only went because he had feelings for her (LOL). A month later, God used such a simple invitation (and a bit of a crush), to bring Noah into relationship with Him. Praise the Lord!!

Through our shared adventures and time together - you’d think it would be a pretty easy road to dating. That wasn’t what the Lord had in mind. To put it in simpler terms… It went like this: We were friends. Then we were best friends. Then Noah liked Clara. Then Clara didn’t like him back. Then it was confusing because they were still friends. Then Clara liked Noah. And then finally Noah caught on and asked her out on a date in March of 2022. She said, “Bold, sure.” About a week later, he asked her to be his girlfriend and she responded a little more confidently, “Yes!”

Keeping up? Great.

Dating.

Right away dating felt natural to us! We used to say, “It’s been like we’d been dating for years,” even though it hadn’t even been a month. This looked like countless thrifting runs, dinner dates, travel, Bethel Vespers, roller-blading, and maybe too-many nighttime Culver’s visits.

But it’s not that simple. It’s easy to remember our highlights but what God has shown us through difficulty has strengthened our relationship the most. We learned how to communicate and honor each other through disagreement. We learned that what Noah wants isn’t always what Clara wants and vice versa. And we’re still learning! But inviting the Lord into it has been the anchor to our success. So much so that one day a new word entered the conversation: marriage. Noah can still remember driving back from a Dexter’s dinner date, and Clara saying, “I think we WILL get married.” Both of them seemed ready and desiring to enter into this beautiful God-given commitment together. So through prayer and conversations - we began to dream up how sweet a life would be together as husband and wife!!

Engagement.

On August 10th, 2025, the Phillips Fam was away on vacation in Montauk, NY - one of Clara’s favorite places in the world. Little did she know that Noah had been planning for months to surprise propose to her out there. And that’s just what happened. After setting his location to a different phone to leave back home in MN, Noah got on an early plane to NY. Following the plane and two different train rides - he arrived at their house on Montauk and got down on one knee! She was fully surprised and overjoyed! She said YES!

As we have reflected on our story - we just feel so grateful. To our families and community, we say thank you! Thank you for all the wisdom and prayer that you have offered to us. We couldn't have done it without you guys - and we can’t wait to celebrate with you all! We hope more than anything that our story and marriage is a glimpse of how Jesus is rescuing us. Ultimately, this day is about Him! See you on 7/3/26 :)

“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” ~Psalm 73:26