Wedding Date on Dec 16, 2018

How we met: “She impressed me so much during that semester with her confidence, the way she held herself, and the way she was so driven. It did not take us long to find out that we had the same faith in God and wanted many of the same things. I knew that I wanted to date her but I God let me know that the time was not right. The hardest thing was not knowing how to explain this to Ciera. It took having to lead a small group together the following year for us to finally talk about our relationship and why we were not moving forward with our relationship. Ciera and I did not talk as much the next year. She decided to go to another campus ministry. The distance made it easier to focus on ourselves and do what we needed to do. Ciera grew so much as an RA and made some amazing friends. I got to spend some amazing time with my family, especially my mom who recently passed away. Right before my graduation, Ciera sent me a letter. This was the beginning of our history with letters. I wrote her a letter back and we talked about our future again. While it was very hard not to date, we both feel that we learned so much about what love really is. We both proved that our love for God and his will trumps our desires and that if we follow His leading, his story is better than the one we could ever write. We learned that the love we had for each other was real and that we were willing to wait for each other. We learned that our love for each other should be just like God’s love for us. It should be unconditional, not based on emotion and feeling, but the kind of love that is for better or for worse. The kind of love that is unselfish and unnatural yet possible with God’s help and example. After the letters, Ciera was working on getting into OT school and a senior in college. I had just gotten accepted into dental school. During this period it would have been easy to lose hope in getting to be with one another but God continually put us in the same place at the same time. It was too crazy to be a coincidence. After what felt like an eternity, I felt God giving me the green light and I decided to ask Ciera to be my girlfriend. I asked Ciera to go get ice cream with me and had it all planned out to ask her out. Before our date, however, Ciera, thinking that I was not going to ask her out, accidentally sent me a text in which she was venting her frustration as to why I had not asked her out yet. Of course, I had to blow my secret and tell her my plans! So became the start of never being able to surprise her! We had our ice cream date and I officially asked her to be my girlfriend. Ciera was such a blessing to me as I tried to make sense of what was happening to my mother and helped me realize that there was so much good still left in my life. She helped me realize the importance of family and spending time with the people that you love. In the time we had together before I left for Gainesville, our relationship grew so quickly. It did not take long for me to realize that this girl I had waited for was even better than I had thought and that I wanted to always be with her if it was God’s will.” The proposal: “After two years of dating and a year and half of long-distance Aaron put a really pretty ring on my (Ciera’s) finger. The story of our proposal is better than I ever imagined, and I couldn’t be prouder to call Aaron my fiancé and future husband. Aaron had taken my mom to pick out my ring without my knowledge. I was actually complaining that everyone left me the day that my mom and Aaron went to pick out my ring. Knowing that we had talked about marriage and our timeline I was very observant to Aaron's comments and actions. Not going to lie, but when Aaron told me we were going on a sailboat one weekend in November I had a strange feeling that I might come home with a fiancé. What Aaron didn’t mention in the “start to our love story” was I sent my letter to Aaron through email and he gave me his letter in person a week later. Let me tell you that was one of the most stressful weeks of my life and every single day of that week I saw, painted, heard, or read about a sailboat. Every time I saw a sailboat it was a reminder to me that I am not in control and that God has a plan, I need only to be still. On the day that Aaron gave me his letter, we were at the waterfront at school with a whole bunch of sailboats. From that day forward Sailboats hold a special place in my heart and through our whirlwind relationship God like the wind to a sailboat was leading the way to our perfect love story. On November 4th, we went to Publix to pick up pub subs (our favorite picnic food) and headed to the Lake Wahlberg in Gainesville. At Lake Wahlberg, Aaron found the perfect spot to have our picnic under the Beautiful Oak trees and the sun shining through the Spanish moss. Little did I know that Aaron and his friend Stephen had located this spot a few weeks prior and Stephen was actually waiting on the other side of the hill to capture our yes moment. We ate our subs and Aaron reminded me that last time we were at a lake like this one amidst the sailboats he gave me a letter. While we were reminiscing, Aaron said “well, I have a letter for today too. Would you like to read it”? At that moment I was thinking “Well Duh, I want to read it” and “OH goodness, it’s happening”. I tried my hardest to actually read the letter but with my heart racing and Aarons leg shaking next to me it was so hard to focus. At the end of the letter, it said: “Normally, I struggle to find the words to tell you how much I love you but today I am excited because I feel like I have a good way to show you”. With that, he asked me to stand up and he got down on one knee. When we were done celebrating, Aaron pointed at Stephen who had captured our moment. As most of you know I LOVE PICTURES, so of course, I was very excited! Then we got to sail around the lake on a sailboat. My cheeks hurt from smiling so much that day. Aaron did so well, and I can't believe I get to marry him.” Our wedding: “Our wedding was a hallmark movie directed by God! Seriously, we were ahead of schedule the whole day (which from what I hear never happens), it was the perfect weather for the middle of winter in Georgia (I didn’t freeze in my strapless dress), and our vendors were all fabulous (seriously amazing)! We got to marry each other in the cutest and most intimate chapel in Dahlonega Georgia where not one but two hallmark movies were filmed! Being from south Florida, a north Georgia winter/Christmas wedding was such a dream! We got to have our destination wedding with our closest friends and family. Everything about the planning was so fun and worked out beautifully!”