While our original wedding did not go as planned (thanks covid), we were still able to have a wonderful wedding with our immediate family there. We always knew we wanted to have a party to celebrate with everyone. But had you asked us if it would take 5 years to finally have a celebration, we would have said "no way!". Well, here we are, coming upon 5 years of marriage.

But that's what happens when you are married to your best friend and living life! As each anniversary came around, we couldn't believe where time was going. We were starting our life together. We both had jobs we were pursuing, adopting dogs, traveling to different places. Our friends were getting engaged, our siblings getting married; time was just flying by and we still hadn't planned our Part Two.

It wasn't until Jana's brother and sister in law were planning their wedding that we looked at the calendar and noticed that our anniversary in May 2025 was not only on a Saturday, but it was also 5 years after our original wedding date. We knew we had to take advantage of this "meant to be" situation.

That brings us to our 5 Year Anniversary and We Do Part 2.

We hope you can join us in Nashville on May 24th as we renew our vows and celebrate! More details coming soon for exact venue location and travel information!

In the Fall of 2015, Jana had just started her Master's program in Deaf Education at Vanderbilt University, and Nick was starting his Senior year at The University of Georgia. Nick and Jana had a mutual friend, Odie Wilson, who had just moved back to Atlanta after living in Nashville. On September 13, 2015, Georgia played Vanderbilt in Nashville, bringing Nick, Odie, and more of their friends to stay with Jana and her roommates. Over the weekend, Jana and Nick hit it off. They continued talking and visiting each other over the weekends, including Jana's first Georgia football game and Nick meeting the Wolskijs. On a day trip in November to Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, Jana and Nick made it official.

In 2018, Nick and Jana had been thinking about the next steps of their relationship after settling down in Nashville. In September of 2018, Nick bought a ring for Jana. The night that Nick went over to Jana's parents' house to ask for her hand in marriage, Nick had secretly set up dinner date for the maid of honor, Sara Linton, and Jana to keep her preoccupied. That night, while Jana thought she was just having a dinner with Sara to catch up, Nick received Harry and Beth's blessing for marriage. Nick (with the help of Beth) started planning the engagement immediately!

The week before the engagement, Nick told Jana he had received tickets from work to go see Cheekwood's Holiday Lights on Sunday, December 2nd. Jana was excited to go, and they planned to make it a date night out together. On December 2nd, Jana and Nick spent a typical day together, doing errands and getting ready for their next week. When it hit 4:00 p.m., Nick started to encourage Jana to get ready for their evening. In typical Jana fashion, she wanted to wear something comfortable, but Nick insisted on making it a date night and dressing up. Jana thought he was crazy, but put on one of Nick's favorite dresses anyway. Nick started getting anxious about timing, and they left for Cheekwood in a hurry. Jana could sense something was going on with Nick, and even asked in the car if something was going on. He kept reassuring her that everything was fine, and he just wanted to make sure they had time to see everything, and still making it back home early since it was a Sunday evening. When they arrived at Cheekwood, Nick was anxious about parking and Jana knew something was up. She even asked him in the car "Are you proposing tonight?" He calmly answered "No, not yet" and Jana did not think twice about Nick's nerves again.

Since there was quite a bit of a crowd there that night, Nick recommended going over to a spot with less people to get a picture of them together to document their date night. It was a beautiful gazebo covered in white lights, and Jana was all about it! There was one couple in front of them having their picture taken before it was Jana and Nick's turn. Jana asked a couple behind them to use Nick's phone to take a picture of them in the gazebo. The next thing she knew, Nick turned to her, kneeled down on his knee, and asked Jana to marry him. With her jaw dropped, she quickly helped him to his feet, gave him a kiss, and said YES!

Nick may not claim to have all the ideas, but he's the one that remembers all the details!

When Nick and Jana were talking about their engagement, Jana told him he must have 3 things before proposing: 1. Her parent's blessing for them to get married, and for them to be together after the proposal. 2. A photographer when he proposed, and 3. Have her nails done. Little did Jana know, Nick wanted the same (well, maybe not the photographer). Only a few people knew that the proposal was going to happen to keep Jana in the dark.

The day before, Jana's mother, Beth, insisted on getting their nails done together. It was a pretty typical thing for the girls to do together, but on that day Jana was a bit resistant. In the end, Beth said "oh come on" and Jana caved. While the girls went to get their nails done, Harry, Jana's father, and Nick went over to Cheekwood and picked out the exact location of where Nick was going to propose, the gazebo. The boys almost forgot to take off their visitor stickers when they came back home from their preview visit!

The night of the proposal everything was ready. The photographer was at the gazebo. Nana, Harry, and Harrison and Sarah were on their way to Cheekwood. Beth even planned for her Aunt Sue and cousin Stefan to come too. Nick's family and friends were waiting for the "She said, YES!" calls and texts, and Beth, of course, was hiding in the bushes next to the gazebo.