Depending on who you ask, Derren and Jacob begin telling their story on very different timelines. What they can agree on, though, is that their love story actually began with a wedding.


Derren grew up a band kid and continued to be one at the University of Georgia. She witnessed as her high-school-band-friend Grayson met and fell in love with the woman who would one day be his wife, Emma. (They were both on the drumline, and their story is cute, too.) Little did Derren know that Emma would also become her best friend. Apparently, Derren is a bad listener because she had no idea that this girl she had known for three years actually had not just one brother, but TWO. More on that later.


Jacob grew up in Tallahassee and was NOT in band and did NOT go to UGA. Instead, he had a sister in marching band who would one day get married to a man named Grayson who she met in college.


In May 2019, Derren was tasked with doing Emma's makeup for her wedding and arrived the night before at Emma's mom's house. No one was there to let her in when she arrived, so naturally, they sent a complete stranger to go unlock the door. This stranger was none other than Jacob (Emma's OTHER brother).


The day of Emma and Grayson's wedding, Derren and Jacob had approximately 1 hour of interaction total before they went their separate ways (quite literally). They both assumed they would probably never hear from each other ever again.


Not long after, Jacob reached out to Derren and came to visit her in Athens. Then Derren visited Tallahassee. The back-and-forth went on from 2019 until May of 2023 when Derren finally moved to Tallahassee.


Jacob proposed in May of 2022 on the top of a mountain (it was also a cow pasture--yes there was a cow present at the proposal).


Fun fact: Derren caught the bouquet at the wedding back in 2019.