Wedding Date on Sep 29, 2018

Devin and I met 10 years ago at the University of Missouri - Columbia (Mizzou). He was one year ahead of me and throughout the duration of college, friendship was the sole context of our relationship. We met briefly during my freshman year, but after getting pregnant right before second semester, I completed my freshman year and decided to move back to St. Louis to get help from my parents in raising my child. When my daughter was 15 months, I packed all of our belongings to go back to Mizzou to finish my degree. After returning, Devin and I's friendship grew as we incorporated lunch dates into our monthly meet ups in addition to connecting at church and calling on him to assist with difficult tasks like moving and helping to build my bed. He swears I only used him for free meals and to build things :) Devin graduated in the Fall of 2011 and I had another year left before I was set to graduate. We continued to stay in touch and after he moved back to Dallas (his hometown), he would make frequent visits to Columbia and made sure to invite me to lunch every time. I moved back to St. Louis after graduating, but while maintaining contact with Devin, our conversations progressed from creative endeavor ideas and suggestions to everyday happenings. In the Spring of 2014, I told him that I liked him (even though he had told me 1000 times before but I didn't allow myself to entertain the thought). From there we began dating and six months later, he moved to St. Louis, found a job, and we've been loving each other ever since. The glue that has kept us (and continues to keep us together) are our faith, love for old school music and hip hop, and our creative eye. I got baptized for the first time 3 months before I graduated college at the church in our college town and that is also where Devin played the drums. In the midst of any type of chaos or unfavorable circumstances, discussing and maintaining our faith has kept us close. In fact, one month before our wedding, we lost our pastor to stage 4 pancreatic cancer and that was also a pivotal moment for our soon to be marriage. Pastor Mike spoke into our relationship throughout the entire duration of our relationship and poured into us long before we knew he would be leaving. Our love for music has always been the subtle theme used to describe DnA (Devin & Alana). Our first date was at an Earth, Wind, and Fire concert. Most of our Saturday mornings consist of soultry albums playing over the loud speaker or us conversing through music/movie quotes. Lastly, we are both creatives. He is a Marketing Coordinator for his employer and freelancer (all things graphics, design, web development, etc) and I am a filmmaker and blogger. Our creativity is what probed us to stay in contact long before deciding to date. When I had a new idea, I would run it by him to get his insight and move forward. I love our ability to see the beauty in everything and brainstorm ways in which we can make things all the more creative. Devin's wholeness added to my wholeness (we don't believe in halves. We believe in the wholeness of an individual before connecting with another) is the supreme ingredient to our marriage. Although it's only been a few months, we remember the values we instilled in our friendship, our faith that sustained our individual lives, and our respect for one another long before our rings. Cheers to many years of DnA.