Though both of us have spent the majority of our lives in North Texas, it was not until Zach moved to Cleburne from Virginia that we first met. She had been serving faithfully at Nolan River Road Baptist Church when he started serving as Associate Pastor in January of 2023. Initially our relationship was just as simple as being fellow church family. As we both faithfully served, it was growing glaringly obvious to EVERYONE around us that our relationship would be more shortly.

Our first conversation began at a Christmas in Action project, as we painted a home for a community member. We had the opportunity to talk and really get to know each other; Alyssa’s unwillingness to even look at a ladder and Zach’s overzealous desire to get the job finished, ended up in Alyssa holding the paint pan and Zach doing all the labor. Following this, the dreaded youth event, known as the lock-in, we both braved the evening with far too many youth, far too little sleep and far too much soda. These led to the opportunity for us to serve at Youth Camp together in 2023, at this point our relationship was serving our church and our students, however this was quickly changing for us both.

At youth camp, while our students were out eating so many snacks and trying to hide from the outrageousness of Zach’s camp outfits, we had more chances to get to know each other. After the week of camp, we returned home both now really beginning to understand there was more to our relationship. With some gentle inquiring from our pastor at the time (Adam, groomsmen), Zach began a SLOW plan to ask Alyssa on a date. However, Alyssa had other plans. Alyssa chose to skip the option of waiting to be asked and gave Zach a well thought out letter, that very simply explained that she felt there was more than a friendship and wanted to know if Zach felt the same way. With this letter in the hands of Zach, Alyssa beelined it out of the church, hoping to avoid Zach until later that same week, this hope was foiled that same evening at our Kids Camp Meeting. After the meeting was over Zach, Alyssa and Ashlee (Matron of Honor) were the last remaining. Ashlee very quickly realized what was happening and headed out, we were left to talk about the letter. We grabbed some dinner nearby and spent several hours continuing our conversation. At this point, we set an official first date for that Friday evening.

Fast forward to a year and two months later, we were officially engaged! If you have gotten this far, we think you may know the next part of our story and we couldn’t be more excited.