In early 2023, Jakob's high school friend and Elise's college friend, Jenna, put rumors into each of our minds that, "Jakob is just amazing. Seriously, just a wonderful guy. Godly, really kind, smart, down for anything. Really Elise, I think he's the perfect guy for you," and, "Elise is sooo fun, Jakob. She's just bubbly, down-to-earth, cute, has a great sense of humor and a servant's heart, and I think you guys would make a great couple together."

So we went on our first date at Cafe Hollander in downtown Tosa, and were there until it closed. Then we went for a drive through Milwaukee and went all the way to the end of Bluemound and back before calling it a night. Jakob really impressed Elise when he was dropping her off by asking if he could pray for them. He held her hand and said a prayer, demonstrating his incredible faith and confidence in his Savior.

We continued going on dates for the rest of that school year, until we started our two-year-trek of long-distance when Jakob graduated from school and lived in Appleton while Elise was still in school in Milwaukee. In January 2024, Elise moved to the Dominican Republic. We spent a year and a half doing veerrryyyy long distance, and saw each other probably less than 60 days in that time. We're super grateful to be living in an age where we could call and facetime! We both learned a lot in that time about ourselves, and about how to communicate, prioritizing devotions, and making time for just the two of us once a week. Today we still practice those learned lessons, and we're grateful the LORD put us through that really tough long-distance, because we love being on the other side of it with our gained wisdom!

This past summer, Elise moved back to the United States. We had made plans to have a really nice dinner at Isaiah and Alaina's house one evening in August. While sitting down to eat dinner, Isaiah started taking a video of our fancy dinner and asked us to describe how we decorated our plates with our delicious food that Jakob had prepared. As Elise finished describing her plate, it was Jakob's turn. She turned toward him to hear about his plate, and he was just getting down on one knee!! Right there in Isaiah and Alaina's kitchen!! She was SHOCKED and was completely speechless. (Alaina was just as surprised, and you can hear her say,"WHAT!!?" in the video.) Jakob says it felt like an eternity as he was sitting there on his knee asking Elise to marry him because she didn't say anything! He put the beautiful ring on her hand, as Elise was still (very slowly) processing what was happening, "Is this for me?? You want to marry me??"

We realized later that we don't know if Elise ever actually said, "yes" in the moment when Jakob asked her to marry him. So a couple of hours later, it became official when she told him, "Yes, Jakob, I will marry you."

So now we're very excitedly planning our wedding! We have not taken it for granted to be spending so much time together after being long-distance for 75% of our dating relationship, and we LOVE being around you, our guests and our favorite people together.

We're just over-the-moon elated to be getting married soon, and so thankful to have a community of amazing family and friends to celebrate our marriage with us. Thank you for all of your prayers and support thus far in our relationship, and we hope and pray that you continue to be part of our story!

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