The first time I laid eyes on Taylor was late February at the Ole Miss BSU. We were volunteering to be freshmen bible study leaders and we were partnered together. We were told jokingly not to fall in love with our partners, but obviously I would break those rules. Over the first spring I knew Taylor, I made as many opportunities as possible to get to know her better and the more I was around her, the more I wanted to be around her. I found out she ran a lot so I would invite her to go run with me at the Whirlpool Trails and we would run three miles and walk three back. We would talk about everything under the sun and I learned a lot about her during those walks. I would push the pace trying to impress her when we ran. Obviously it worked because you are reading this on our wedding website, but it did not come without consequence. I developed shin splints over the spring because we ran so much...it was worth it. The first thing I noticed about Taylor (aside from her stunning blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes) was how much she loved Christ. This was very evident with how she treated those around her and how much she cared about her friends and family. She was one of the few people who could leave me speechless with her sassy comebacks. We went to a lot of baseball games, many more than she wanted to. As a normal boy, I was clueless as to if she liked me or not. We were spending a lot of time together and I did not want to leave things up in the air before summer since I was going to be gone. We had an end of semester cookout put on by the BSU at a local park. For the whole event, Taylor never talked to me and never gave me a chance to talk to her! But she was having conversations with people I did not know about and discovered that I had feelings for her. That next week was finals week and I was determined to find out if romantic feelings were mutual, but I was nervous. I lost 7 pounds that week because I could not eat. We went for a run and I had every intention of talking to her but for 2 hours while we just walked because Taylor was "tired" I talked about everything but what I wanted to. Since I chickened then, I made a baseball game date with her for the next day with a Smore's pizza dinner date beforehand. As we were walking to the game I refused to be nervous for an entire baseball game and finally got up the courage to tell her my feelings for her. They were mutual and our relationship officially began May 10th, 2018. I had no idea the cute blonde I liked Sophomore year would turn into my absolute best friend in the world! She is my favorite movie partner, workout buddy, constant encourager, my biggest fan and the love of my life. Truly the biggest blessing God has ever given me in a person and I thank Him for her every day. She has pushed me in my relationship with the Lord and been my biggest supporter while in PT school. I am counting the days until I become her husband and get to wake up every morning next to my best friend.

I met Daniel the spring of my freshman year of college. I had signed up to be a Bible study leader for other freshmen the following year and Daniel was made my partner. Every week when we met as a big group to discuss what we were learning and pray together, we always prayed with our partners at the end. I can vividly remember sitting there with him praying for the first time and my cheeks feeling so red and hot because I thought he was cute and I was so worried I was being awkward. When you find a boy who loves Jesus AND is super cute AND is really really sweet, then it is really really hard to not like him. I kept telling myself that I couldn't like him because that was technically against the rules and I don't like to break rules, so I kind of accepted it and went along. As we continued to meet, Daniel started to ask me to hang out with him more and more because we were supposed to "get to know" our partners. I thought it made sense, so we started going running a lot together and hanging out at baseball games too. The more I was around Daniel, the more I wanted to be around him. He was and still is one of those people that so often just radiates joy and you can't help but smile when you are around his goofy and sweet self. His love for the Lord and others was evident in how he prioritized people and I learned so much about how to love others well from him. Fastforward a few weeks and my friend Carol and I were headed to a picnic in the park the BSU was hosting. I mentioned something about Daniel right before we got out of the car and she said, "Wait, you know he likes you like a lot, right?" I informed her that I had no earthly idea he liked me because he was so nice to everybody so I could never tell whether he was flirting with me or not! She continued to tell me how he had asked the people over the Bible study for permission to date me (thanks Amy and Zack!). For some reason, this made me super nervous so I avoided Daniel that whole night. We were supposed to go on another run the next day, so I decided I was going to give him the chance to tell me how he felt because now that I knew it was mutual and he had wanted to get to know me better for a different reason than Bible study, I was all in! We ran maybe one mile out of our usual 3 and I "got tired" so we walked for about two hours after that. The Lord gave me patience that day because it took everything in me not to say something about what Carol had told me, yet he still never said anything. The next day, we went to a baseball game ( I had been to three that weekend..I don't like baseball if that tells you anything). As we were walking, Daniel asked me if we could date and the rest is history! God has used Daniel in my life in more ways than I can count and I'm so thankful that he blessed me with such a kind, respectful, hardworking, loving, and Christ-like future husband and best friend. I cannot wait to be his wife and forever baseball date oh so soon!

Our first official date at Swayze Field