We first met in 2012. Constants, who is the bride's line sister and also one of the groom's closest friends, more like a sister, was graduating from the University of South Carolina. Keeping it casual and brief, we would randomly taunt one another over our ongoing South Carolina vs. Clemson rivalry. It was not until 2019 and by what we like to credit as God's divine timing that our acquaintanceship developed into a friendship. Markeshia sent something to Dominic about Clemson on Instagram. Dominic said something to the extent of "Why do we seem to only talk on here?" Markeshia then followed with "You tell me."

The conversation transitioned to a text message thread and we texted consistently. However, we vividly remember talking one night, and before we knew it 4 hours had passed. The conversation was so organic. We discussed a wide range of topics: love, politics, sacrifices, faith, and family, to name a few. After this, we knew something was different. Many similar phone calls would follow. For nearly a year, we spent time getting to know one another before making it official on December 15th, 2019. Then, just three months later the COVID-19 pandemic completely knocked the world off its axis. Amid a global shutdown, both of us in grad school, and over 500 miles separating us, we learned to look forward to FaceTime date nights. Even still, we discovered the beauty and blessing of finding love in a pandemic era. As we grow in grace, we are prayerful that our love for one another will abound more and more. Five years later we find ourselves trusting God to continue blessing our relationship as we plan to become one.