Wedding Date on Feb 3, 2018

Jacob and I met the beginning of our sophomore year of high school. Legit, I immediately had a crush on him and knew he was the coolest kid at church, so I started going to youth group at Highland Park United Methodist Church just so I could "run into him". Several months later we started dating and continued dating until the beginning of junior year of high school. After we broke up, we remained friends and actually became best friends! As a girl you are always (at that age) trying to impress boys, but I never cared with Jacob hahah I knew I could say or do whatever and it didn't matter, he'd always be there for me. Senior year of HS (when I had a BF), Jacob sat me down and let me know that he loved me and wished that I would get back together again. I said no and that I wanted to stay besties. When we went to college, we stayed in touch - meeting for coffee or breakfast whenever we were home for break. Then the end of our junior years of college, we both started dating other people and as relationships get more serious, you start to lose touch with your other girl or guy friends. So, for the next 3 years, except for Happy Birthday or Merry Christmas texts, we had really grown apart. At the end of those 3 years, we both unknowingly broke up with our significant others at the time. I had said yes to being someones date to a wedding, where I knew NO ONE except for Jacob's older brother, Luke. I ended up hanging out with Luke and his now wife, Julia for most of the evening and throughout the night (a few cocktails in) Luke would let me know that "Jacob was single again" or "Our family still loves you" or "We all need to hang out soon"! Thought it was sweet and funny, but didn't think anything of it! A few days later, Jacob texted me and said that we should meet for breakfast...I said of course! It was like no time was lost, we picked up right where we had left off :) Jacob says this is when he knew I was going to be his wife...for me, it took a little longer hahah. That was May of 2015 and I really wanted time to rejoice in the gift that the Lord had given me...singleness. So, for the next year, Jacob pursued me without fail consistently letting me know he understood and that we could just be friends until I was ready hahah. During this time, my heart really changed and my eyes were opened to so many reason as to why I love Jacob, the biggest being his quiet servant's heart. Jacob is much quieter and gentler than I am. So, noticing all of the things that he would do for me, his family, friends...most of the time without any of us noticing, WOW it's just amazing and he's relentless at it. I could ramble on forever hahha, so I'll continue with in May/June of 2016 (an entire year after our first bfast) our relationship morphed into dating...never really defined it, it just was obvious what it was hahah. We knew that if we started a relationship, that was it, so I really think that's why my heart was telling me to have patience. Then, on April 22nd, Jacob proposed!!! I'm a massive planner and know everything on my calendar for the next year, so he started planning about 4 months before. I didn't think it was going to happen for months, because he tricked me and told me he hadn't asked my parents yet (that was the only thing I wanted to know!!!) and he had said he would ask my parents months in advance. So a week before the proposal, I was standing with my mom when Jacob called her, I asked him later what he was calling about and he said he wanted to know dates he could take my parents to ask for their permission (little did I know, he had asked my parents 3 months earlier). I was completely surprised and shocked when he proposed!! We were headed to the church to meet our youth minister, Tova (also officiating the wedding), so when he pulled me into the courtyard to give me a letter T had asked him to write...I didn't think it was weird! So it wasn't until he got on his knee at the very same church we met, that I knew what was happening!!! Our families were watching from the second floor and he had a photographer hiding in the bushes, it was a dream. I said YAS and here we are!!!!