In case the tag line didn’t give it away, Luke and I met on a good ole dating site called Hinge. I honestly, had no intentions of joining when I did, and I didn’t have high hopes for finding a suitable match. I had the hardest time putting together my profile, and at first I was very anxious about the idea of meeting someone on the internet. (Ya know serial killers and all). I remember the first time I came across Luke’s profile I got so excited when I saw a picture of him holding a GOAT!!! (If you know me you know how much I love them!) I’d be lying if I said that the first few days of chatting with him are a bit of a blur, but one of the things that stuck out to me the most was the ease of the conversations that we had. I frequently found myself excitedly anticipating his responses and smiling giddily at the fun, light hearted, and open conversations that we could have with each other. On our first date, after we finished our dinner we went for a walk around down town Johnson City and about half way through our walk he told me that he was a little scared walking around in a strange new city and asked me to hold his hand. It was cheesy, and I knew he wasn’t scared, but I was more than happy to hold his hand for the rest of our stroll. At the end of the our walk we were at my car, he hugged me goodbye and we both went home. I remember feeling like I was glowing on the way home that night. A few dates later, during a picnic in my back yard Luke creatively asked me to be his girlfriend on the makings of S’mores, and because I am a strong independent female I told him I would think about it. (Apparently I scared him when I did that) Of course, you know how that ended and a year and few days later he asked me a much more important question. He asked me to be his wife. I said yes. I would have said yes six months earlier, I would have said yes six months later, and I will continue to say yes to him for every last one of my days on this earth. He is my greatest blessing and my most favorite human, and I am so excited to marry him surrounded by our friends and family!

One our the things we sometimes do is tell each other bedtime stories. This is the story of how our life together began. Once upon a time there was a man named Luke from land on the other side of the mountains. He was not having the best of luck finding a suitable partner where he lived so he ventured over the mountains into Tennessee. Now he had received word from a lady by the name of Rachel that she would be willing to meet over pizza. The idea of sharing pizza with a beautiful woman already had his heart beating fast. He was as much of a gentlemen as he could be and even sent her home with the leftovers. After spending some more time with her over the next few weeks and tasting her cooking, he knew he had to have this woman in his life. Ever since meeting her, Luke felt at peace when he was with her and eventually scrounged up enough money to put a token of his love on her ring finger. To be continued…