The love story of Justin and Cassandra can be boiled down to three simple words, “Life is crazy.” Cassie was a girl from York, Nebraska that was active in Soccer, Volleyball, Basketball and Cheering and was determined to become a teacher. Justin went to Waverly, one of York’s biggest rivals. He would play football and wrestle at many events where Cassie would be cheering at. She had no idea that she would cross paths with her future husband who she was coincidentally cheering against at most wrestling meets. That is just one of many times that their paths almost crossed.

The first interaction that Cassie and Justin had was on Facebook Dating, Cassie says she liked Justin’s profile because of all the mutual friends they shared and Justin says he liked her profile because of the cute red-headed rugby player profile picture. After they had been talking for a couple weeks, Cassie claimed that Justin almost “dropped the ball.” So while sitting in Dr. Gigstad’s office Justin was trying to think of a way to move this from just texting this beautiful woman, to actually meeting her in real life. Well, at that moment, Justin asked her if she wanted to go out on an actual date… and she said yes. So they planned it for her favorite coffee joint, Scooters! At this time since Cassie was still in school and Justin was studying to take his Board Exam, they called it a study date, needless to say, a minimal amount of studying was had. These two talked for so long that the barista’s had to remind them that they were closing soon. Both Justin and Cassie left that Scooters with butterflies in their stomachs and a strange feeling of connection. Justin couldn’t wait for the next coffee date.

Fast forward many coffee shop dates later, Justin had to go back to Ames to finish his schooling, and Cassie went back to Wayne for her schooling. Then something happened that shocked Justin, Cassie texted him a question out of the blue while he was on his Small Animal Medicine Rotation, she said, “I have a long weekend, can I come visit you in Ames?” That simple text was all that was needed to start a series of weekend trips between Wayne, Nebraska and Ames, Iowa.

Skip forward to the end of summer, Cassie and Justin had planned a trip to car camp in Utah and visit as many national parks as possible in just 10 days. This trip didn’t exactly go without mishaps along the way but needless to say, this trip made their love grow even stronger (ask Justin about the air mattress event). After this trip, Cassie and Justin ended up buying their very first house in Syracuse and not more than 10 days later, Justin knew it was time for him to ask Cassie to be his forever person, and guess what Cassie’s response was, “For real? No taksies-backsies?”

Like I said, Life is Crazy…