Natalie and Jake met on February 25, 2017 at a party in college. The first time they hung out together it lasted roughly 5 hours and consisted of a lot of Natalie talking and Jake listening and subtly trying to hint to Natalie that she had overstayed her welcome. Spoiler: she did not get the hint. This set the tone early on that it would be hard to get rid of each other. The summer of 2017 Natalie spent every weekend (except one) visiting Jake in Lincoln while she was living back at home in Kearney. It was a summer of getting to know each other and realizing they weren't getting tired of each other. It took until June 30, 2017 for Jake to finally ask Natalie to "go steady" and be his girlfriend. She of course said yes. A couple weeks later she met Jake's parents and things got serious quickly after that, even exchanging "I love you" shortly after making their relationship official.

Throughout the years since starting their relationship, Natalie and Jake have gone on many fun adventures together, the best of which was adopting their sweet Maximus in May 2020!

Fast forward through many memories together to one of the most exciting ones - getting engaged! Sundays have always been their special day and this was the most special of all the Sundays. Natalie and Jake started the weekend (Saturday) grabbing coffees and going to the farmers market before they headed out to a national park to go on a hike. Natalie was having such a great day and thought that Jake might propose during their hike (spoiler: he did not). The next day, Natalie and Jake did their usual Sunday routine of running errands and then coming back and lounging. Jake sat at the island reading a book, Natalie sat on the couch reading a Magnolia magazine. Without communicating it to each other, they both had a feeling of contentment that day even though they hadn't done anything special or out of the ordinary. Jake went to the office to grab something (hint, hint) and Natalie called him over to look at an article in the magazine she was reading (it was related to french fries and dipping sauces, in case you're curious). Jake subtly kneeled next to her and looked at the article before saying, "So..." The way he said it, Natalie knew what was coming. She said "Wait, are you doing it right now?!" And the rest is history - she said yes! (Natalie still doesn't remember what exactly Jake said because she was so excited that she blacked out)

In February 2022, Natalie encouraged Jake to explore a career in the military to see if it would be a good fit. He was so excited to explore the option since he didn't think it would be in the cards for him. Back in college Natalie confidently declared she could never be a military spouse, so Jake gave up on considering the military as a path for him. However, after a conversation with one of her student workers, Natalie decided to rethink her previous thoughts on military life and encouraged Jake to explore it if he was still interested. After months of jumping through all the hoops involved in the recruitment process, Jake was sworn in and enlisted in the Army. Since they knew the process would move quickly, they knew the wedding would too. They picked up their marriage license on October 10th. Jake was sworn in on October 12th. Natalie traveled to New York City for a work trip, where she purchased her dream wedding dress two days before her wedding. The couple was married in an intimate wedding on the morning of October 21, 2022. Natalie and Emily (her maid of honor) had an inside joke that October 21st is the best day of the year, therefore it was the best day to choose to get married. It was the most perfect day. They had perfect fall weather and were married at their favorite place, Pioneers Park. They had their two best friends stand up with them, they had a hilarious officiant that tailored the ceremony to them, their lovely parents were there to support, their personal attendant Georgia helped with all the tiny details, and their amazing photographer Molly Sheppard captured it all. They couldn't imagine a better day!

Roughly a week after the wedding, Jake departed for Basic Training in South Carolina. Starting their marriage off and immediately jumping into long-distance was not what they had imagined, and it definitely came with many challenges. But here they are, over two years later and they feel so strong as a unit and are committed to supporting each other in pursuing the paths that fulfill them and figuring out the rest along the way. Natalie and Jake do what we can to be intentional with time together, but as you can imagine, it's a challenge. That is why planning a honeymoon will be so special to them. It will be a much needed time for them to pause, reconnect, and create more memories together.