let's do this

Yes, our original date was set for June 27, 2020. Yet in March of 2020, the world turned upside down, and not in quite as good a way as it did in Yorktown. (If you didn't get that reference, go listen to Hamilton). As you know, we ended up postponing our entire wedding a year - the venue and our vendors were wonderful in letting us do that free of charge - and we ended up going on and getting married ... twice! On June 24, 2020, Cody and I were able to have an intimate ceremony with our parents and grandparents with my dad legally marrying us. On June 27, our original date, we ended up hiking onto the southern tip of the Appalachian Trail and having an intimate elopement, just the two of us (and a rather excited group in a tent nearby shouting congratulations). Round three of this wedding thing is next, and we're so excited to celebrate with you (either face to face or virtually) this June 20th!

Though they grew up only 10 miles from each other, Cody and Kristina didn't really meet until college at the University of Southern Mississippi. They were both freshman studying music education and had several classes together. As class dismissed one day, another guy tried to flirt with Kristina. Cody promptly swept into the conversation and refocused Kristina's attention to himself. The friendship only grew from there. The romance really began to thrive when they shared a 9:30am aural skills class the next semester. Every Tuesday and Thursday they'd wake up early, get Chick-fil-A breakfast on the way to class, and sit next to each other. (And they still enjoy a good meal at Chick-fil-BAE) Kristina and Cody consider their first date to be on Labor Day weekend of 2012. A category one hurricane had just gone through the Gulf, and Cody nonchalantly mentioned he was headed to the coast to check it out. Kristina assertively invited herself on the trip, which ended up involving go karts and putt-putt. Years afterwards, she mentioned that she should get credit for starting the relationship because she invited herself along. Cody's rebuttal? "Nah, I knew you'd invite yourself. That's why I told you I was going. If you hadn't invited yourself, I wouldn't have even gone." (And they still love a good road trip)

Kristina used her Spring Break of 2019 to take a trip to Seattle, Washington and the Pacific Northwest with two friends from high school. Unfortunately, Cody was not on Spring Break at the same time and so was taking care of his favorite living creature in the entire world - Flitwick (Kristina's cat). Towards the end of her trip, Cody brought Flitwick back to her apartment. Kristina boarded her red-eye flight in Seattle around 9pm and landed in Atlanta around 4:30am. She was craving sleep that didn't involve turbulence and airplane seats, but had to manage to drive back to Pensacola first. With a venti peppermint mocha in hand, she made the four and a half hour trek back to her apartment. As she parked, Cody came down to help her bring up her suitcase. She vaguely noticed how nicely he was dressed, but through the brain fog didn't think much about it. As she stepped into the apartment, she noticed all the candles and blurted out, "Wait, why are all these candles lit?" At that same time, Cody went down on one knee. Kristina then noticed that in her bookshelf, Cody had set up more candles, flower petals, and the letters to spell out "Will You Marry Me". Unable to even let him verbally ask the question himself, she nodded frantically and went to kiss him. Full of joy but officially out of adrenalin, she then took a blissful two hour nap.