Kaitlin and I first met in a weekly Bible study group through our youth group. She sat across from me every Sunday night and always had something insightful to contribute to the conversation. I was the goofy, nerdy band kid (and still proudly am) and she was the beautiful cheerleader I was too afraid to speak to. Fast forward until the summer after I graduated high school and we are both chaperones on the yearly trip to BigStuf in Panama City with the middle school youth group. During that week we really hit it off and became pretty good friends. On the way back to Birmingham one of the middle school girls really wanted to braid my hair (I had shoulder length hair at the time) and asked to borrow a ponytail holder from Kaitlin. I kept my hair braided until we got back to the church and then put the ponytail holder on my wrist. Maybe a week later I found myself looking for any excuse to talk to her more and then I remembered the ponytail holder and texted her to ask if she wanted it back, knowing full well girls go through hundreds of those monthly. She responded kindly with "no, you can keep it!".... well there went my plan.

A few months later we agreed to do a Color Run in Birmingham with some friends from church, which everyone bailed on last minute because of rain. So I showed up at her house and tried calling and honking my horn for like 20 minutes until she woke up and came sprinting out the door because she slept through her alarm. We went and did the color run and it was great and we looked like smurfs because it was raining and the color stained our skin. She will say this was our first date but I disagree. Another month later I agreed to be her date on a double date with my brother and his girlfriend (who happened to be her best friend). We went to California Pizza Kitchen and had a great dinner and then went back to my parents house to watch "The Dark Knight" (which is a great movie but maybe not for a first date). When I went to take her home that night I knew I would be going back to UA the next day and if I didn't do something to let her know that I "liked" her then I wouldn't get another chance. So after awkwardly saying goodbye for 20 minutes I leaned forward and kissed her. The next morning we went to church together and began dating after that! The rest is history!

I have had a crush on Will for as long as I can remember. We were both in the same small group at church for four years, so every Sunday night I got to sit across the boy with the long flippy hair (and develop a massive crush on him). I was really shy and never had an excuse to talk to him (because he was also shy) so nothing really ever came of it.

Fast forward to the summer of my senior year. I realized we were chaperoning the same trip and took serious advantage of it. I tried to get to know him as best as I could and we ended up having a lot of fun! After we got back to Birmingham he sent me a Facebook invite to watch him and some friends play guitar at a coffee shop (I thought that meant he liked me until I realized he sent it to everyone else at our church). I went to watch with a friend. I consider that the night that I fell in love with him (it's hard not to when a boy dedicates a song to you in front of an entire crowd of people). But he went off to college right after so I thought that was the end of that.

Just a few weeks later we decided to go to the Color Run in Birmingham with some church friends. However, we realized the night before that all of them had bailed so it would just be Will and me. The day started off pretty rough because I accidentally slept in (which happens far too often) and began the day by apologizing a thousand times for making us late. Although it rained the whole time it ended up being super fun! I consider that our first date and the beginning of our relationship.

So a few weeks after that his brother developed a crush on my best friend and when he reached out to me for help setting things up with her, I texted Will for help (hello, the perfect excuse to finally talk!). As we helped Sam, Will and I got closer in the process. Sam asked Will to double date with him on his first date and Will asked me to come along (as a favor to his brother). I happily agreed (and little did I know that we would be dating by the end of the night). So after four years of crushing on one another, we finally sealed the deal and haven't looked back since.