Our paths crossed on June 16th, 2018, at a wedding party brunch in Des Moines, Iowa. Our lovely friends Johnna and Adnan Palic had gotten engaged and asked us to stand up with them on their special day. The pre-reception brunch was where the groomsmen and the bridesmaids would meet and get to know each other a bit more. The bridesmaids were the first to arrive and waited for the groomsmen to make their appearance; after some time had passed, the first groomsman joined the table, Liam. We both clocked each other quickly and made our own mental notes to make an introduction - we were on the same page!


After brunch and photos, the wedding party came back together before the reception. Apparently, Sam was playing hard to get – not surprising. Once it was time to line up for the entrance, another bridesmaid tapped Liam on the shoulder and told him he should go talk to Sam because she was interested, to Liam’s surprise. He was going to give it another shot but we weren’t paired up, so we would have to wait. As soon as dinner concluded and dancing began, Liam walked over to Sam’s table to chat. We started chatting and learned that we both grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and that we were both moving to central Illinois in the fall, only an hour away from each other – things just kept falling into place.


We talked to each other all evening and after a lot of drinks and dancing, Grow Old with You began to play, and Liam asked Sam to slow dance. Once the reception was winding down, we needed to get some air after a while and walked around a nearby sculpture park, where we had our first kiss under the Nomade. We talked all night and that whole summer.


Over time, we’ve learned just how close our paths have been. Turns out, we grew up 15 minutes apart from each other, attended neighboring high schools, and were at a few of the same sporting events. We ended up moving to Iowa around the same time and dated the wrong people in the same town. We just so happen to make friends during our time in Iowa who just so happened to fall in love and get married. Despite us being the farthest apart we’ve ever been, our orbits finally crossed, like two asteroids colliding into space, pretty random but makes an impact.