Wedding Date on Apr 28, 2018

We met almost three years ago while Coy was living in LA and I was living in San Francisco. His ex-girlfriend from high school introduced us! I met her in college and several years later, she decided that Coy and I would be a good fit! She introduced us over text and we haven't stopped talking since. We talked for about a month before we actually met in person. He had never been to San Francisco, so we decided he should fly up for a weekend! When I picked him up at the airport, meeting him in person for the first time, he was relieved to find out I was a real person and not cat-fishing him. We often refer to that weekend as a whirlwind – something we never expected. From that point forward, we flew to each other almost every other weekend for 1.5 years, boarding 58 flights in the name of love. Long distance isn't easy, but we both had jobs that kept us in our separate cities. We learned to communicate extremely well because we weren't always in person to show how we felt. One of the things that became a foundation in our relationship was saying, "I love you and I'm grateful for you." Even in our hardest moments, we would look at each other and express our appreciation for one another. We truly were so grateful (and still are) for being able to walk this life together hand in hand. We had obstacles to overcome, i.e. living in two separate cities and different religious backgrounds, but our gratitude for each other almost made those things easier. I finally landed a job at my dream company in Los Angeles and made the move down to be in the same city as Coy, and my family. We were engaged 8 months later and married in Austin, where he is from, 6 months after that. As we were planning our wedding, we often checked in to make sure the day that we were planning felt authentic to us. When we would get stressed about details (i.e. colors of the napkins, size of tables, what flower to choose), we would remind ourselves that the only thing important on that day was each other, and our family and friends. “No one will remember the color of their napkin, so let’s make a decision and stop stressing about it,” is something Coy would often say to me. We made sure to focus on details that had meaning to us. A few of our favorite details include: When we first started dating, I knew Coy was a talented photographer. He films movies and tv shows (This Is Us anyone?!), but I didn’t know how passionate he was about it until we went on our first road trip. He would pull over the car and suddenly disappear for ten minutes with his camera. Often times, I had no idea why or where he went until he returned to the car with the coolest shots I had ever seen. It happened so often that I started calling his camera his “mistress”. It became an ongoing joke that he would spend more time with his camera than me. I named his camera “Chantrelle” and she has been a fixture in our relationship ever since. She comes everywhere with us and Coy often disappears with her, only to return with beautiful photos. On our wedding day, Coy’s mom and I surprised him with a groom’s cake of Chantrelle – his beloved Canon camera. When we walked into the reception, he saw the Chantrelle cake and started laughing so hard. We spent the first half of our first dance laughing about the cake before I started crying because I was so happy. I mentioned the story of "I love you and I'm grateful for you" at our rehearsal dinner. That night Coy's sister went home and painted a wooden sign with that saying on it to decorate at the wedding. I walked down the aisle to a song that was written and composed by my brother and Coy's brother. Last year, Coy painted a jean jacket for me with a landscape inspired by a trip we took to Joshua Tree. I love it and wear it all the time. I wanted something similar for our wedding. He surprised me at the rehearsal dinner with a light tan leather jacket that was painted for our wedding day. It had Texas bluebonnets and my new last name. One of my favorite details of the day.