Our first date was at succulent shop in Deep Ellum, Dallas. It was a typical hot day on September 29th and I was waiting out front on the busy sidewalk so that Lily would be able to see me when she got there. Traffic and parking can be horrendous in that area of town so Lily had texted me letting me know she was going to be a few minutes late. About 10 minutes after our scheduled meeting time I was starting to get nervous, and that’s when I saw her. Now understand that this was the first time we were meeting in person, as we were set up by our mutual friend Spencer Rascoff.

She was two blocks away crossing the street when I saw her. I couldn’t recognize her from the few photos Spencer had shared because she was so far away and I’d never met her before. But I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I was here to meet that woman. When I saw her I immediately knew three things: one, she runs like a soccer player. Two, she has the most beautiful sun bleached curly hair. Three, that I was going to whatever it took to be with this girl. As you can probably tell by now, I succeeded with that third point.

We didn’t decide to get married until much later, but I will always remember that moment - standing in the crowd under the hot sun with cars roaring past, watching the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen running up to me - as the moment I met the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

-Evan