Brian here! While Rebekah is a prolific reader, between the two of us, I am the one who likes to write. Because of this, Rebekah recommended that I compose Our Story and she be our editor.

Our story begins online. We found each other in the middle of April 2023 on eHarmony. After sending thoughtful messages back and forth for about a week, we met up for the first time in person on April 22nd. We were both nervous, but between the two of us I was even more nervous than she was. First, we had brunch, and then we spent the better part of that fateful afternoon getting to know each other at the North Carolina Arboretum. We connected over our mutual interests in geeky things, including Mass Effect, Star Wars, and of course, The Lord of the Rings (LOTR). We also discovered the mutual faith we have in God. Beks gets all the credit there. While I was planning on avoiding potentially controversial territory like politics or religion on the first date, she took it upon herself to broach a candid conversation about Jesus.

And I’m forever grateful that she did. On our very first date, we established that we were both a couple of nervous geeks who shared a love for the Lord, and that we were looking for a special someone who shared the same essential values.

In the weeks and months that passed, our feelings for each other grew. After a few months, I summoned the courage to ask Beks if she would officially be my girlfriend and I her boyfriend while we were visiting Freedom Park in Charlotte. Fast forward to my birthday last year, and she surprised me by taking me to visit the Biltmore. I am a huge fan of castles, and while the Biltmore is technically a house... it resembles a castle and I couldn't get enough of it! It was there on that day that we first expressed our love. Since we met, not a day goes by when we don’t communicate with each other. In fact, we can talk to each other for hours on end without running out of things to say. Beks and I are two best friends who are getting married.

As for our engagement story, well, it might be easier to explain in person. The spark notes version of the story goes something like this… It was a sunny day out on May 11th, 2024. That morning, we had breakfast at the Another Broken Egg café in Asheville. Later, we went shopping together, had a little car trouble which by the grace of God got sorted out quickly enough, and later we had dinner together at Beks’ place. That was when I popped the question, which involved a little help from a custom-made stuffed elephant, me bonking my head on a chandelier, and my darling Beks saying, “Yes.”