Wedding Date on Aug 18, 2018

HOW DID YOU TWO MEET? Melissa and I were in the marching band together in college. We were in the same section and we became best friends. We were best friends for two years before we finally started dating our junior year, and everything moved really fast from there. -Steve Steve and I met the very first day of band camp at Vanderbilt. We both played the mellophone. I was a freshman at Belmont (non-Vandy students make up almost half the band), and he was a freshman at Vandy. During the first meeting, our director said “introduce yourself to the person on your left, now your right. You may have just met your husband or wife.” We were sitting with one person in between us, but I did notice Steve and think he was cute. He had a terrible haircut. Apparently, my mom remembers me talking about him on the phone later that night. Our friendship really started that day. My crush on him started pretty quickly, but I always ignored it because I had a rule that I would never date someone in my section. We hung out often that year and were just friends. At the beginning of sophomore year, we went to see Peter Pan by the Nashville Ballet, and I really thought he would ask me out. He didn’t and a few weeks later we were both with other people. Our friendship continued to grow throughout the year. Junior year started and we started spending more one on one time together. He asked me out on October 5, 2016, and we knew that was it. We had already started talking about getting married by December of that year. -Melissa HOW DID STEVE PROPOSE? I had plans to propose to her at Percy Warner Park, overlooking the skyline, but Melissa had a rough day at school that day. She asked me to turn the car around. So, I told our friends waiting at Percy Warner Park with a camera to leave and I ended up proposing in the kitchen of her apartment instead. -Steve It was March 1, 2018, and I had a terrible day. I took a midterm that did not go well and felt super gross. Steve picked me up and took me back to my apartment because I was hungry and angry. He told me the day before that he really wanted to go hiking. I made him make me some food then we got in the car to go hiking. A little over halfway there it started raining. I didn’t say anything but was definitely using angry body language. A thought passed through my mind about how if he were proposing he wouldn’t take me home. At the next stoplight, he looked over and asked if I wanted to go home. Of course, I did. We hung out for a few hours. I took a nap and changed clothes. I was headed to my hometown to go shopping with my mom. Right before I walked out the door, he asked if I meant it when I told him he could propose anywhere. I said yes but also started crying because I knew it was happening. He dropped to one knee, and I answered the easiest question I had ever been asked. It really was the perfect moment. -Melissa