The Beginning

What can I say, this girl made me a cake on my birthday and she didn't even know me! At that moment, who would have thought that we would date? Well, us. From that first moment when I walked through the Truss' front door with Mary Kate's brother Tim, we wanted to date each other. So, the next logical decision was for me to drive nine hundred miles from Texas to Florida and take this incredible girl on a date. After my Florida trip, I had to drive back to Texas to begin my second year as a FOCUS Missionary at Angelo State University. Thus our long distance relationship began. Long distance wasn't easy, but it was so incredibly worth it. Of course we would have countdowns for our weekends together (Mary Kate would fill me in on the countdown down to the very second everyday... multiple times a day). But we also did weekly date nights over FaceTime which included buying the same bottle of wine (there were many FaceTimes at our respective grocery stores trying to find a wine that was in both Texas and Florida). Our ten months of long distance were beautiful. We prayed rosaries together, did our Marian Consecration together and offered holy hours for each other.

The Engagement

Hmm Valentine's Day. What a great day for an engagement! No, not because of all the love stuff going around, but Mary Kate's grandmother Momma Jo and her grandfather Pop Felix got engaged on Valentine's Day! It was perfect: a very "romantic" trip to the doctor's office, a trip to get a biscuit from Maple Street which made my tummy hurt (well, my tummy hurt because I was so nervous, but I blamed it on the biscuit and coffee) and a rained out picnic. BUT, nonetheless the day was perfect. We went to confession, mass and did a holy hour right before getting engaged. What a gift. After that, we went back to Mary Kate's apartment to have our romantic, rained out picnic on her back porch. It actually worked perfectly because we did our first holy hour on our first date there! The nerves had taken a break at that point, so I knew it was time to ask her. We set up our picnic and blessed the food. After our blessing, I pulled out the ring and asked Mary Kate if she wanted to become a saint with me forever as my wife. She said "OH NO WAY!!! YES OF COURSE I WILL!!" It was the absolute best day.

Wedding Party