Straight from the Groom

Let's wind the clock back to 8 years ago. It was New Year's Eve 2016. My friends and I were having a get together at our college house, and this get together calmly turned into a party. At about 12:30am on January 1st, McKayla Faust comes walking into our house, as a friend of a friend. She catches my eye, but it wasn't love at first sight. I wasn't the type to get my hopes up over anything, I saw no logical reason as to why she would be interested in me. After just a small amount of conversation, I saw a small amount of potential that this girl could end up being the love of my life. Quite the contrast.

I couldn't let this night be the last time I talked to her, so I miraculously got her number. We've been a force in each other's lives every single day since.

We started dating March 8th of 2017, and we both were head over heels in love with each other. Or so we thought. McKayla and I both had a LOT of growing up to do after we started dating. Looking back, one could argue that this was the case of right person/wrong time. This relationship wasn't destined for greatness in its first few years, and we don't hide from that. Quite the opposite actually, we cherish this time together because these first few years McKayla and I showed each other our absolute worst. We didn't scare each other off though, we continued to work on ourselves. Our common ground was this: we both knew that this relationship had potential. Through whatever struggles we experienced, whatever criticism we faced, we had this underlying love and need to get the BEST out of each other. We worked for it, and we eventually got there.

Right around the summer of 2020, I was absolutely head over heels in love with this girl. I did know it at this time!! Everything was falling into place. We had both spent so much time working on our selves and our positive momentum was shining through. We both had awesome jobs, working for people who truly cared about us and our development as humans. McKayla ended up moving into her own apartment in Fresno, and I had gotten a promotion at work that included me moving to Visalia. This could have thrown our relationship off, and it didn't even come close. We loved this time in our life, and all of the trips up and down the 99 to see each other ended with pure joy.

One of my favorite things about McKayla is how big her heart is. She loves harder than anyone I have ever met. In January 2021 she made the call to go to the Fresno SPCA to rescue a dog. I figured that she would take care of this dog with all of the love in her heart, which is really all she needed to do for this to go well. She picked up this "little furry thing" that absolutely melted her heart. I saw this dog, and saw a beast in the making. That beast's name is Kodi. Once Kodi entered the picture, my love for McKayla grew exponentially. With McKayla's big heart and compassion, she's destined to be an amazing mom. She took that mentality to loving Kodi and she showed me a whole new meaning of love. I look up to McKayla when it comes her ability to pour her heart and soul into something she loves.

Our next big chapter came suddenly and unexpectedly, I had the opportunity to move to Reno and continue my career path. This was going to happen on one condition, McKayla and Kodi are coming with. McKayla jumped at the opportunity to move cities (she didn't even know where Reno was). She saw this opportunity as something that was good for me, and she wanted to be there for it. We got up to Reno in September of 2021 and we have loved life up here together every day. I decided a year later that it was time to put an engagement ring on this girls finger, because it's her and only her that I want to call my bride.

We are so excited to celebrate with all of you!! Hope you enjoyed reading a little bit about us!