I met Luke on the first day of 6th grade in Mrs. White’s homeroom class. I knew he liked basketball, he had been the president at Arlington Elementary, and apparently Mrs. White taught his uncle, so he was basically Arlington Royalty. As the president of Lakeland Elementary, I saw a bit of competition. Our friend groups began to merge throughout middle school, so we started to be around each other more and more. What a lot of people don’t know is that I have actually broken up with Luke before. Okay, maybe not in the way you’re thinking. See, in middle school it only made sense for the basketball-loving Luke to date my very athletic (and very opposite of me, as I could be found in the art room 90% of middle school) best friend, Erin Young. (Yes, my Maid of Honor DATED my future husband). However, it ended like most middle school relationships did- a week later Erin woke up and decided she didn’t want a boyfriend. So, she requested my help in letting him down easy. Meaning, I had to craft and send the breakup text from Erin’s phone. I can happily say this is the only time that I had to (and will ever) break up with Luke. Fast forward through some awkward, but fun middle school years, a few other middle schoolers’ broken hearts, and a continued mutual friend group, we made it to high school. This is where things started falling into place, and in April of our Junior year, Luke asked me to be his girlfriend.

If you had asked Riley if her husband was sitting in the same room as her on the first day of sixth grade, she probably wouldn’t have believed you. But what she didn’t know was that I was developing—and would perfectly execute—a 5-year plan to convince Riley to date me. Which was immediately followed by 7-year plan to convince her to marry me.