John and Brittany met in April 2015 at Memory Lanes, a dive bar in Minneapolis with bowling and sand volleyball courts. Brittany had just moved to Minneapolis and was determined to find a few friends in her new city. It was a Friday night, and there was a volleyball meetup group scheduled to play sand pick up.

Brittany's goal was to make at least one new friend that night. When she arrived at the sand volleyball court, she marched right up to the first person she saw...it turned out to be John.

“Are you here for the meetup?” - Brittany

“I don’t do meetups.” - John

…

“But we are short a girl on our team tonight if you want to play with us?” - John

Brittany agreed to sub. John was holding a pitcher of beer and a stack of cups and promptly poured Brittany a beer and handed it to her...then went back to watching volleyball.

In her head, Brittany thought, "I think I have a new friend?" If not, at least I have a beer and a volleyball game to play. It took a few seconds, but John then turned back and said, “Oh I'm sorry, that was rude! I’m John.”

The evening proceeded with Brittany subbing on John’s sand volleyball team, meeting a whole crew of people (most of whom you’ll see at the wedding). They found out she was from Ohio, and had played division three college volleyball - so she quickly became “D3” or “Ohio.”

After the game everyone hung out, drank beer and ate tater tots. David asked Brittany to play on his coed soccer team that Sunday, even though she hadn’t kicked a soccer ball since kindergarten. And Carrie asked Brittany where all of her friends were? *Spoiler*, she didn’t have any, yet. This was the start of a beautiful friendship crew that included an absurd amount of adult recreational sports, group hangs, and nights out on the town.

It took a few months of friendly banter and hang outs before any hints of romance began. In September, John asked Brittany “if she wanted to try a new restaurant with him.” Not a date of course, but the two of them went to Butcher and the Boar downtown and shared wine and apps together and chatted for hours while driving around the city looking at cool art. This led to three or four more dates over the next few weeks, all under the guise of “friendship.”

Then one night John asked Brittany to be his date to a wedding, a destination wedding in Jamaica! She originally thought he was kidding, so he had to ask a second time :) Brittany called her mom to get some advice, and Pam replied “who doesn’t go to Jamaica in November?” So off she went, to Jordan and Ashley’s wedding, to meet ALL of John’s other friends and spend an entire week with them.

This officially solidified Brittany and John’s love, not to mention the fact that all of John’s friends now also loved her. The rest is 8 years of history now, filled with adventures, sports, food and lots of time spent with friends.

We couldn’t be more excited to be with all of you to mark this milestone in our lives. Our love is better thanks to our incredible crew of family and friends. Thank you, Brittany & John.