The very first encounter Caleb and I had was at LifePoint Church in Portsmouth, OH. It was the Christmas Eve service in 2018, and Caleb was helping with worship. He was obviously playing the guitar and it caught my attention.

After the service was over I messaged him on Instagram. (It started because I slid into his DM's) I told him that he was really good at guitar and I enjoyed listening to him. (Side note, I had no idea he was in a band. It sounds silly now.) He responded once, I tried to keep the conversation going, and he left me on read and I thought that was the end of it.

Lo and behold, a few days later, he asked my stepbrother for my snapchat. I would also like to know that my stepbrother had a rule that I wasn't allowed to date any of his friends. Clearly it didn't matter because he I am typing out our story before getting married.

Before we got the chance to hang out, Caleb had to go back to Nashville so our love story felt very short lived. We continued talking throughout the month in which he was gone, and learned more about each other everyday. We stayed up late texting, FaceTimed throughout most evenings, and had a lot of time to connect over the phone. We still had yet to meet, but on January 27th, 2019, Caleb picked me up in his Dodge Charger and we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings and then to an escape room with my siblings.

Caleb asked me to be his girlfriend on February 10th of 2019. It feels like we have been inseparable ever since.

At first it seemed so easy. We saw each other quite often, he came home most weekends, we went to prom together, graduation, parties, the whole 9 yards. We were two kids, who were in love and wanted to spend every waking second together.

August came along and I moved to college, and this is when long distance truly started. We had known long distance, but nothing like this. We were tried many times, felt like giving up sometimes, but remained faithful that we were each other's person. As a collegiate athlete, and him on the road every weekend, we spent more time on FaceTime than we did in person for the first few years. Being 6 hours away and an hour time different for two very busy people isn't exactly ideal, but I am so thankful we continued to push through.

When COVID hit, we were in heaven. We spent every day together, grew closer, and began to entertain the idea of getting married someday. When the COVID year was over, we went back to long distance and continued to work hard on our own dreams. We realized that if you wanted something you had to work for it, and that's exactly what we did for the next 3 years, together but apart.

In June of 2023, our friends, Simon & Isy Dumas, were getting married in Gibraltar so we decided to book a trip to see them tie the knot as well as seeing other parts of the world. We went to Barcelona, Malaga, Gibraltar, and ended our trip in Paris, France.

Let me rewind. In December of 2022 as we were booking this trip, I had noticed my favorite photographer was going to be in Europe around the same time that we were (a total God thing!). Caleb and I booked a photoshoot at the Eiffel Tower during sunrise. I wanted photos where it wouldn't be crowded and sunrise was the only time.

See where I'm going with this?

On June 26th, 2023, Caleb got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. It was the most MAGICAL proposal. Since we were 6+ hours ahead of everyone at home, we spent the entire day running around Paris just happy and in love with minimal people knowing our big news.

Our first 48 hours of being engaged was a whirlwind of an experience, and I joked that if our marriage was like this, I didn't know if I could handle it. We got stuck in New York City due to storms, had to ride a train and Philly, and almost missed our flight home. Just believe me when I say it's crazy!

As I reflect on our dating life, engaged life, and soon marriage life, I cannot help but grin ear to ear knowing I'm marry who God had created for me. There were many doubts that we had as 18 year old kids, with a lot of miles between us, but most importantly we just wanted to serve each other.