Sarah met Carlton as a freshman at Biloxi High School, and instantly she was smitten. Carl was best friends with Sarah's older sister Stephanie -- he was a fixture in the Grammar household on the weekends in 2010 and 2011. Sarah and Carl struck up a friendship early on; they fondly remember eating lunch every day in the Internet Café at BHS and spending countless hours at Taco Bell on Pass Road after school.

On afternoons when Stephanie would have extracurriculars once school let out, Carl would often drive Sarah home on his way back to Keesler Air Force Base, where his parents were stationed. They shared their life stories with each other, shared laughs and inside jokes, and snuck a few kisses every now and then.

During the summer of 2011, Carl's family was reassigned out of Keesler Air Force Base to San Antonio, TX. He was cast in a production of Sweeney Todd at Gulfport Little Theatre, so he opted to spend the summer in Mississippi before heading off to college. Because of his family's reassignment, he found a home at the Grammar household, where Sarah, her mother Cindy, and her three sisters welcomed Carl into the family as an honorary Grammar. That summer was filled with trips to Sarah's Aunt and Uncle's house in Woolmarket, family game nights, and a lot of fond memories shared by the couple.

After that summer, Carl went off to college at the University of South Alabama, and the two mostly lost touch, with the exception of a brief visit every now and then when Carl came back to Biloxi. Another 11 years would go by before they saw each other again, but they both held a special place for the other in their hearts.

Sarah and Carlton's paths diverged significantly after 2011. Carlton studied Theater and History at USA, and Sarah went on to study Theater at Harvard College. Life took them many places -- Carl to University of Houston for his Master of Fine Arts in Acting; Sarah to Seattle for a job in Association Management and Event Planning.

Then, the pandemic hit. Carlton moved back to San Antonio and began a career in IT, and Sarah moved back to Biloxi to teach at their alma mater -- Biloxi High School. They both shared similar pandemic stories of work drastically changing for them, feeling isolated with the shutdowns, and recalculating their priorities in life. Unknown to either of them, in the summer of 2022, 12 years after Sarah and Carlton met, an Instagram post would set the two on a trajectory toward marriage.

Carlton's sister Caitlyn gave him a gift card to Dutch Bros. Coffee, a staple of Sarah's time in Washington State (there was one right down the street from her apartment -- she was a huge fan of their Cold Brew with a Vanilla Soft Top!). One morning, Carlton decided to use his gift card to get a Golden Eagle Chai (still a favorite of his) which he snapped a pic of and posted on his Instagram story.

"The best coffee place in the universe" messaged Sarah, in reply to the post. "It was soo good!" replied Carl. What ensued was a very long message thread filled with catching up, sharing memories of the past, and reflecting on how much they had missed each other in the 11 years that had gone by. Eventually, Carlton gave Sarah his number, and they continued to text into the evening. After many exchanged messages, Carl called Sarah on the phone. They talked for over three hours -- talking, laughing, reminiscing -- Sarah's side ached from how much Carl had kept her laughing during the call. Both knew that something special had just occurred.

From then on, Sarah and Carl talked every chance they got, usually with a phone call to end the day. Carl visited Biloxi over Labor Day weekend, Sarah returned the favor in October with a trip to San Antonio, and they kept contact through FaceTime when they were apart. Sarah attended Christmas with the Warnberg family in Texas, where Carlton gave her her most treasured possessions -- a vinyl record player and a Simon & Garfunkel album. The song "Bridge Over Troubled Water" was and is an especially meaningful song to their story as a couple and ended up being the inspiration for Sarah's wedding vows at their elopement in August 2023.

The couple decided to move in together about six months after they reconnected, but Sarah's school contract wasn't finished until May of 2023, which meant waiting five more months before they could relocate. They rented a house in New Braunfels, TX, a place filled with newly made memories as a couple. Their first date was in neighboring Gruene, and they often took trips there when Sarah was visiting San Antonio.

Their new house quickly became a home as they settled in and decorated. The prominent feature of their new living room became a record wall, a display of their favorite vinyl albums surrounding a stand with the record player Carl got Sarah on their first Christmas as a couple. After work, they enjoy putting a record on and listening to the likes of Jim Croce, John Denver, Joan Baez, and Vampire Weekend.

Carlton and Sarah discussed getting married and began the planning process -- even though they never actually got engaged! They knew they wanted to be married, so the "proposal" part seemed less important than the "marriage" part. They weren't exactly "sticking to the script" as it were.

One night in July, right before Carlton was scheduled to go to California on business, he got a call saying that he no longer had to travel to the West Coast. Since he had already taken the time off of work, Sarah wondered aloud what they ought to do with the day he had off.

"We could go get married." Carlton said. Sarah enthusiastically agreed.

Unfortunately for the couple, they did not know much about Texas marriage law and in their hubris assumed they could do it the very next day. After filling out a marriage license application and picking it up at the Guadalupe County Clerk's Office, they realized they had to wait 72 hours (damn!). But, they had waited 13 years after meeting for this, so what was three more days?

Sarah used her skills as an event planner to quickly throw together a romantic elopement at Landa Park in New Braunfels. She excitedly called her mom and asked her if she could fly out for the ceremony; Carl called his parents and told them the good news -- Penny and Scott played celebratory music over the phone, and Carl and Sarah could practically hear them jumping for joy.

Sarah became Mrs. Carlton Warnberg on a sunny afternoon on Saturday, August 5, 2023. Their parents, Carlton's sister Rebecca, and a few of their close friends were in attendance. Sarah made her own wedding cake for the reception at their home in New Braunfels.

The couple is excited to share the joy of their marriage with all of their friends and family with a second ceremony in Biloxi, MS in Summer 2024.