It’s hard to find an exact point to start. One thing I know for sure is that God had a plan all along, through all the highs and lows, the waiting, the uncertainty. Every moment God delicately planned from the beginning, and we will never forget that.

Paige and I’s story is something that is uncommon, yet very special. From the very beginning I found Paige to be a great friend with incredible qualities. She intrigued me. She was charming, compassionate, and always kept you on your toes. Her sense of humor could lighten any room.

She and I were just friends at first, that’s right, I was friend zoned. I didn’t have feelings for her, at first. I just enjoyed being around her. I enjoyed how much fun she had and how she viewed life. A few years into our friendship, Paige faced some heartache which drew us closer. I saw her heart hurting and I could only grow to care more about it. Through this heart ache I was able to care for her and see a side of her heart I never would’ve imagined by just going on dates; this opened my eyes to who she truly was and gave me an ability to care for someone I was just friends with. After a while God, began working in some profound ways to get us to where we are today. I asked Paige to go to prom with me for my senior year, and by my luck she said yes, It was that night I truly caught a glimpse of what dating her would be like… Everyone had always said to me “Brandon, you like her” … “Brandon, you have feelings for her!” But I had never seen it until that night.

From then on, I realized 2 things. 1. I could no longer just be friends with her 2. I had to figure out how to marry her. So, I started doing everything I could to show her I didn't belong in the friendzone. From spending all my money to take her on what I allowed her to call “friend dates”, to driving to Alabama after my graduation to some hot air balloon festival with a half running car. I chased her because I knew eventually, she would get tired. And I got to say, she ran a lot longer than I thought she would…but that was okay because I saw it as marathon training because my goal was to be able to run a lifetime with her.

Her side of the story was probably worded a little bit different. To make a long story short, there’s now a ring on her finger, so it turns out nice guys don't always finish last!

Brandon and I met when I was a sophomore in high school. And like any great love story, I was dating someone else. We were in the same friend group so Brandon and I spent a lot of time together. We naturally hit it off as friends. He brought out the fun, silly side of me, always reminding me life wasn’t that serious. Senior year of high school I experienced my first heartbreak. As the summer went on, my girlfriends grew tired of listening to me go on and on about being heartbroken, but Brandon never did. We would go to this fishing dock in our hometown, and I would ramble on for hours. He was always there to listen and let me cry it out if I needed. Summer came to an end, but Brandon and I’s friendship did not. We would talk on the phone he was away at college in Tennessee and I was in Alabama. Our friends would get together every Christmas break for a ski trip. Brandon even drove to Alabama to come to a few date parties…one date party in particular he left the date party at 2am to drive through the night back to Knoxville to get back in time for a test the next day. My friends would always say “Paige, he’s in love with you”…”Y’all are going to get married” and I would shrug them off saying “Absolutely not, we are just friends!”
About 6 years into our friendship, Brandon decided it was time to confess his really feelings to me. In this monologue, he mentioned that he “could see me being a great wife”. It is sweet now that I have a ring on my finger…but at the time when I did not have any romantic feelings for him I was like “WIFE?!?!” I explained that I loved him….as a friend, but unfortunately I didn’t see anything more. We stopped talking for around a year after that; We weren’t on bad terms. He just needed time to get over me. Fair. What I couldn’t have expected was the feelings that would form over that next year. Brandon was gone, and I noticed it. I missed talking to him. I missed laughing with him. I missed my best friend. I found myself thinking about him a lot, but I continually suppressed it. I had this idea in my head of who I thought my husband would be and Brandon wasn’t it.
God did two pivotal things in my life that year to completely change my heart. 1) Flashback to junior year of college. One Thursday, I went to ONE, a college night Church of the Highlands held each week. They talked about characteristics to look for in a future spouse that would last. That night I went home and made a “non-negotiables” list for my future husband, discluding anything involving status, looks or materialism. Fast forward to the spring of my senior year. I was scrolling through my notes and found the list. As I read over it, It finally hit me. The list was describing Brandon. He had all of the things I was looking for in a future husband. 2) The second thing happened just a month later. I was going on a bachelorette trip with my friend who had a very similar story. She had friend zoned a guy for years. One day she finally decided to give him a chance and here they were a month out from getting married. On that trip, I nonchalantly asked the bride, “ So, what made you change your mind about him?” Her response changed everything for me. She said “Deep down, I always knew he was the one. At the time, I just wasn’t ready for him to be.”
After that trip, I made it my mission to get Brandon to as many events while I was home for summer as I could. He was hesitant, of course, really only coming to a few grad parties and back yard socker games. But Labor Day weekend, our friends talked him into coming on the lake with us. I tried and tried to flirt with him but Brandon was not having it. He didn’t want to let his guard down only to be hurt again, so he avoided me like the plague. Until finally, I was climbing up some rocks to go cliff jumping and, in true 3rd grade fashion, my friend pulled him aside and said “She likes you, you idiot”. He dove into the water to come after me. We jumped off the cliff together. The rest was history.