We're so excited to celebrate with you!

We actually met on swim team in elementary school, but only Carter rememberes, ha! To his recollection, all he heard the lifeguard yell out was "Slow down!" only to turn and see me prancing around the pool at too fast a speed. Fast forward to college, my freshman year and his sophomore year. I saw a friend of mine at a distance on campus, so I came running up to her to say "Hello"! I found her to be talking to an incredibly handsome, tall guy with sunglasses on. It was a brief interaction before I whisked off to class, but I was introduced to that cutie known as Carter! After our short conversation, Carter later proceeded to tell me that he went into the library to try to get some studying done but all he ended up doing was staring at a blank computer screen and sweating through his shirt for two hours before throwing in the towel....in his words, he was "absolutely smitten"! I don't know whether the sunglasses threw me off, or if I just had my mind full of a million things that a freshman girl scared to be late for class has swirling through her head, but this brief interaction seemed to have slipped my mind as I re-introduced myself to Carter a couple of weeks later at the first practice of our intramural volleyball team that our mutual friend (the one I ran up to say hello to a couple weeks prior) organized. As soon as I pulled into the parking lot of the sand volleyball court and walked up to the sand box, I noticed that this good-looking guy didn't have a partner, so I gladly joined his side to start warming-up and (unknown to me) re-introduce myself, ha! I think we were both so focused on the other that we probably played our worst set of volley-ball ever. The whole time we were asking questions, laughing, and sharing quick glances. After that, we both knew we had never met someone like the other. The topic of our faith in Jesus fueled our conversation; I could see a light in Carter like nobody I'd ever met before and that's what attracted me the most!

Carter's annual Spring-family trip was actually an undercover proposal set-up! A generous friend of theirs gave their mountain-house for his family to use and for Carter to set up the perfect day. When we arrived at the house, smoke billowed out due to the fireplace being backed up, so we proceeded to spend the first day airing out the house, ha! The next day, Carter and I were planning to go to a nice lunch with his family. His brother "accidentally misplaced" his wallet, and told us he'd catch up later. All dressed up, Carter and I proceeded to make our way to the restaurant. Before we got there, Carter insisted we go check out this pond in down-town Highlands, NC that looked "Hallmark-Perfect". When we arrived, a woman with a camera was already taking some pictures of the ducks. Her face lit up when she saw Carter, and they actually knew each other from when Carter was little due to his family having done their family pictures with her. Naively, I thought this was coincidental, and after our conversation, we walked a ways near the edge of the pond taking in the surrounding beauty. Carter lingered for a moment and then he grabbed me by the hands. At this point, he was on shorter ground than I was, so he swung me around to where he was taller and proceeded to ask me to marry him! I was shocked and filled with joy beyond compare! That "photographer friend" was actually there for us! Misty-eyed and with cold hands, we grabbed each other close to take some precious photos the moments after. Then, Carter started to drive us back to the mountain house. I exclaimed, "I have GOT to FaceTime my parents!" With a sweet smirk on his face, he agreed. Come to find out that he organized my family and his to be together at the mountain house for an engagement party! They were all gathered for a warm welcome on the front porch! Streamers, cookies, and coffee-punch awaited us inside and we spent the rest of the day laughing, crying happy tears, and not leaving each others side.

Due to COVID, Carter and I had to completely scratch the wedding plans we had worked so hard on and anticipated for so long! However, Carter and I still got married on Mother's Day, 05/10/20, and it was the absolute happiest day of our lives (and every one of them since then)! God provided through a generous couple, The Henderson's, as they opened their backyard to be our venue to host our ceremony with our close family and friends. They had hosted weddings in their backyard in the past and had exactly the right number of seats to seat everyone who came...talk about God's intentionality! Happy tears were shed, vows exchanged, and rings placed that day, and we were one! Marco's pizza, cupcakes, and quality time with family and friends followed along with fun pictures and our first dance!