From Jacob’s Perspective (with some of Juliana’s edits, of course):

Our story did not so much begin with each other as it more so started with one another’s family members. Let’s be fair, with Bella’s extroverted tendencies most people tend to know Bella before they even know any others from the Van Gorp family. So, I had known Bella before I knew Juliana. When Ana was in high school, she was and still is very much invested in her community. So, every year she and a friend would give spieling tours during Tulip Time. But in high school, she had one special request each year. She wanted Steve Schemm as her tractor driver to pull the wagon and loved having him as her driver year after year. So, I knew Juliana’s sister, and Juliana knew my dad quite a while before we even knew each other that well.

Both of us were active members in both band and show choir in high school, so of course, we both knew of each other back then, but we still had never talked. It was our involvement in the speech team that first connected us. During a practice for one of Juliana’s events we struck up our first conversation, an awkward one at that, but it set the ball rolling. Soon after this we were texting and sending snapchats back and forth every day. We spent the 2015-2016 school year getting closer and closer until Juliana got up the nerve to express her feelings. She expressed how she really liked me and would be interested in a relationship, and to Juliana’s humiliation, I did not reciprocate the feelings (actually, it was more of a “thanks for sharing… I don’t like you back really”). Ouch. After that, things between us were a little awkward, to say the least. We continued to be friends but grew pretty distant in terms of casual conversation.

Ana and I never quite seemed to like each other at the same time. Obviously, it worked out, but it took a while to get there. Throughout different relationships, it seemed we confided in one another often for recommendations on how to handle difficult situations and always knew we had each other’s best interest in mind. As Juliana was dating a boy from out of town at the beginning of 2018, she informed me at winter formal that she didn’t feel like it was working out. She ended up breaking it off with him, and we started to again begin texting and snapchatting pretty often. We decided to go to prom together, which in high school is a pretty big deal, so we grew closer in Ana sharing her dress with me, her telling me what our flowers looked like, her picking out my suit… see a pattern? There will be a handful of my ideas at the wedding but just plan on a majority being Ana’s choices.

After a really fun night at prom, I boldly asked Ana to be my girlfriend… over text. Don’t ask her about it, she’s still not over it. Although we were nervous about the oncoming college experience for Juliana and the long-distance relationship we were entering into, we were both excited about the possibility of living life together side by side, as we had been behind each other for quite a long time.

In May of 2021, I proposed to Ana in Pella. We went on a car ride tour of all the places that were important to us, starting at Jersey Freeze in Monroe, which was our first date spot, and ending up at the Tulip Tower, which is the center of the place and people that have loved and supported us best. It was a really special day, getting to tell all of our closest friends and family that we were going to get to forever live life together.

Though our long-distance relationship has been hard, we are going on four years together. We have lived in 3 different states, traveled hours just to get a day or two to spend together, but have continued to be thankful for God to place us together at just the right time. We are incredibly excited to continue our lives together and can not wait to celebrate with all of you.