Wedding Date on Aug 8, 2020

"Bradley and I met long before we started dating. Heck, we probably met in high school when we both went on the same Knoxville trip to Frontier Ranch for Young Life the summer after sophomore year. The first memory I have of Bradley is from my friend, who took him to a cotillion function back in college. He had long hair and picked her up in a minivan and remember he was so outgoing and fun. We met again after a church service and remember talking Tennessee football with him. I think my friend Cody had told me he thought I was cute and loved that I could talk sports, but didn't think much of it. Fast forward years later and I remember him adding me on social media, his name being bigbteezy. I thought, "Oh yeah, that Bradley Tearnes (yes, I spelled and mis-pronounced his name for awhile), he's a cutie. How is he still single?" So, I'd see his pictures pop up time to time and saw he was friends with a lot of my friends from school and thought, “Man, this guy looks like the real deal AND we have a lot in common.” We had both been involved in Young Life, had mutual friends, loved tennis, loved the Vols and were from Knoxville. Not to mention, I thought he was smokin’ hot. About 3 years ago, I saw a picture of Bradley from a mutual friend's wedding - looking extra fine all dressed up (which I now know is a very rare occasion :) ). I decided to text a friend, out of curiosity, to ask if she knew if Bradley Ternes was still single. She texted her college roommate (now Bradley’s business partner’s wife - small world, I know) to ask and to get a text going. They asked Brad and he was interested - I got screenshot to verify. So, they gave him my number to give me a call. At the time, I was living in Atlanta and Bradley in Nashville. So, a few days later, I get a phone call from him asking to take me on a date in 3 weeks (yes, he’s a big planner). And the fact that he had the guts to call me up AND call it a date, I was sold. I loved that he had the confidence to call me to ask me out - he won my heart from the start. And knew he was someone special, maybe even that he was going to be my future husband. We got to talk on the phone almost every night and text every day and already got to start knowing each other before we went on a date in person. The rest is history. We dated about a year and a half long-distance - a really sweet time that we look back on setting the foundation of our relationship. I moved to Nashville and we’ve gotten to do life together in the same city for a little over a year now. On February 15th, 2020 we went to go play tennis at Vandy - something we normally do on a weekend together. And after a few minutes of hitting and warming up, he asked to take a break to get water. I was going on and on about my new racket I got for my birthday and the new grip my friend taught me when, mid-sentence, he reaches out of his tennis bag and is down on one knee and says, “Sweet Elle, will you marry me?” Yes, it was the easiest question I’ve ever gotten to answer." Their wedding date, August 8th, held a lot of importance for Brad and Elle as that was Elle's Father's birthday. Her father passed away during Elle's sophomore year of college, before she and Brad met. Her letter to Brad reads "I'm confident he is smiling big on my choice..."