Zach and I met at Dallas Baptist University at the end of my freshman year. I needed a date to my sorority's formal and heard through the grapevine that he thought I was cute. With the help of mutual friends I got his number and took him to my formal. A week later he called me and asked me to go to Sonic with him and then after spending the next three weeks together he asked me to be his girlfriend. The next day I went to camp for the summer and every Saturday when I saw him he would give me 6 letters for everyday that I was at camp. We dated for the next 2 and half years at DBU and grew so much together. We went to the same church for the majority of our relationship and got a front row seat to each other's sanctification. It's been so cool to watch Zach grow in his love for the church, discipleship, Scripture, intimacy with Jesus, and biblical manhood. He has loved and pursued me well and consistently points me to Jesus.

This year we both started the Watermark Institute where we are learning so much and are grateful that we get to do it together. On December 1st he asked me to marry him right outside my favorite coffee shop and we got to celebrate with all our friends and family after!

I am so excited to follow and love Zach in a way that points to the church loving Christ. I hope our covenant glorifies God and magnifies the Gospel in the way that we love and serve each other and those around us. In this season I'm reminded that my anticipation to marry Zach is only a shadow of my anticipation and longing for Christ to return for his bride. May every part of our story and wedding point to a much much greater story.

-Madeline

Now for a more unfiltered version of the story!

Hello everyone my part of the story begins at billy bobs in the fall of 2021. This is where I saw madeline for the first time as she moved in slow motion, dancing it up just like in the movies. Fast forward a quick 8 months and I got a text from her asking if I would go with her to her formal. Little did she know this was all part of my master plan after I had been dropping hints to mutual friends that I thought she was beautiful. I was so excited for formal and was beyond nervous. The night of formal was not going as planned and I was too nervous to talk to her about anything other than how her dad was a fire fighter and spider-man. Two things that I thought were super cool. As we were dancing the night away from completely separate parts of the room it was finally time to come together for the slow dance. There was just one problem... I was drenched in sweat from going so hard on the dance floor. So naturally I go up to madeline as the slow dance is starting and I let her know that I would have loved to dance with her but I would be doing her a disservice in asking her to grab my sweaty hips as we slow danced. Instead of slow dancing we continued to make awkward conversation about spider-man and firefighting. We concluded the evening and I walked away knowing that I had completely fumbled the bag. A few days later I decided that our story could not end so tragically so I gave her a call and asked her out over sonic and a long drive getting super deep into the late hours of the night. And the rest is history and today I am not a firefighter or spider-man.

We continued to date for the next 2 and a half years with a brief breakup somewhere in there. Oops sorry. But that did not stop us from falling madly in love with each-other. Now we are perfect without any flaws and are so excited to get married! - Zach