Post Wedding Celebration

On January 2015 I was her first Tinder date and she was my second. We met up for drinks one evening and immediately hit it off. I still remember her amazing smile as she walked in through the door 15 minutes late :) After a few drinks and great conversation, our night continued as Melissa suggested we grab dinner at a tapas restaurant downtown. I was happy to extend our date, but admittedly I thought she was just trying to get an expensive dinner out of me! At the end of the night when we agreed to see each other again I knew it wasn’t about the dinner. After multiple more dates, amazing trips together, supporting me through an ironman and searching for a new job, I fell in love with Melissa. 4 years later I finally asked her to marry me. I planned a romantic weekend outside of Austin where we stayed in a beautiful little cabin in the hill country. I surprised her in the morning right before we were to head out for the day by getting on one knee. After staring at the ring for what felt like forever, she said yes!

Our first date was a rainy night, so of course I was running 15 min late. I still remember walking in and seeing him like it was yesterday. We talked, we laughed, and there was no denying a connection between us. Drinks turned into dinner at my favorite Spanish tapas place. I didn't want him to think I was sticking him with an expensive first date so I suggested we split the check. We had another date soon after to see live music (James loves live music). The talent line up included a gf/bf duo, and their best song was titled "Pizza Girl". It was a super cheesy song to say the least. V Day was a few weeks later, and we ended up getting each other the same gift...a pizza with a card asking "Will you be my pizza boy (girl)?" We never looked back after that :) I have so many favorite memories of our story - adventures, travels, talks, little things like him simply meeting me and the twins at the grocery store just so we could see one another in the middle of a busy week, and waking up to an email he sent to me in the middle of the night about something he was looking into regarding autism that may be of help to Lucas...those emails would melt my heart every time. By the end of that year, there was no doubt we were a perfect match for one another, but I had no idea that he was about to completely steal my heart. For my birthday, he managed to contact the right people at Colorado State University and get my story to the person who made me hopeful - Temple Grandin. If you don't know who she is, then do yourself a favor and look her up - her life will inspire you! His gift to me was a phone call from Temple to speak to me about Lucas. I was stunned! To this day, I cannot tell the story without crying. That first year was incredible, and the years to follow were no different - we moved to Austin, we became a family, we bought a house and then 3 years later, James got on one knee and asked me to marry him. I soaked it all in and in what felt like mere seconds, I said yes!