Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Wedding Wednesday: Our Love Story

We are in the midst of planning some wedding things, but don't have too much exciting new news to share so thought I'd take a break from the "planning posts" and share the story of how we met (with Valentine's day on Friday I thought it appropriate!).

First I should note that in 2006, I received a letter in the mail and I was assigned my roommate at CU Boulder [Chelsea]. To say I was nervous and scared to live with this total stranger, as I embarked on this entirely new adventure far from home, would be an understatement. But, much to my surprise I was blessed with one of the sweetest, fun, and all around awesome roommates who is now one of my best friends.

Flash forward four years (after Chelsea had moved away to South Carolina at the end of freshman year we still kept in close touch) and Chelsea was getting married! She had mentioned that I was walking down the aisle with this guy, Alex, and he was "cute". I said yea, yea, whatever Chels! A few days later Alex friended me on Facebook (a bit weird I thought, but I accepted, since that would be an entirely too awkward walk down the aisle if i didn't, ha). A few weeks later I arrived in SC, and that night I met Alex. I remember thinking, okay she's right, this guy is really cute...and began to get giddy about "walking down the aisle" and being around him over the weekend.

We hung out that weekend, but of course only for a bit since I wasn't in town too long. We had exchanged numbers and began texting the day I left. But I thought this guy lives in North Carolina, and I live in California--he's great, but this could never work. But, daily texts (I still remember the butterflies of anticipating texts) lead to a call one day, then long phone calls, and finally one day Alex asked if he could fly me out there for the 4th of July. My family thought I was a bit crazy for agreeing to go visit this guy, but I assured them I was staying at Chelsea's house and I would be safe. She is one of my closest friends and I knew she would never let me do this if she didn't think he was a good guy. On that first flight from CA to SC I was SO nervous. As I walked off the plane I was thinking what was I doing? Going to stay with this guy who I had only spent a few hours with? But then when I saw Alex standing behind the gate I became excited, still nervous, but excited. We drove to Chelsea's house and had the best weekend EVER!
One of our first pictures together 
After that weekend, we began to officially "date" long distance. This led to trips across country every few months and daily Skype sessions (this was before FaceTime became the thing...). We had tons of fun visiting each other and going on fun weekend trips. [Side note: that special time in our relationship made me grow to LOVE weekend getaways with Alex. They are probably my favorite thing to do together.] Of course the goodbyes became harder and harder. After just over a year we realized if this was going anywhere we needed to make a decision. At the time I thought I was going to move to North Carolina, but after many long talks we decided Alex would move out to California. So, after nearly a year and a half of dating long distance, my Southern Gentleman packed up his entire life and moved out to CA...and the rest is history ;)
Alex's first trip West (we went to Catalina...one of my favorite memories!)

Love Always, Nancy J

14 comments:

  1. very sweet story! of course I'm partial to NC so I think you should have moved here :)

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  2. oh my lord this story is so sweet....ahh this gave me the butterflies and happy excitement feeling with you while reading...so so sweet :) Xx.

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  3. Probably the cutest love story of all time!

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  4. This is PRECIOUS! Tyler & I did distance for 3 years before I was able to move to Nashville, so I remember those butterflies before seeing him all too well :)

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  5. Love love love this story! Not only do we have the same wedding date, we both met our fiances at weddings :)

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  6. I might actually have just saw "AWWWWW" outloud at my desk!! This is such a sweet story and how cute that you have a photo of you two walking down the aisle 7 years before you get married!!! Eeeekk I love great love stories :) Can't wait to keep following your blog :)

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  7. Love this!! David and I survived two years of long distance and I too treasure those weekend trips still to this day!

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  8. So neat how things happen - a Cali girl and a Carolina boy somehow end up together?! I love it!! Thanks for sharing!

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  9. So sweet :) Love your story! My fiance and I were also in a long distance relationship. We weren't as far apart, but I know exactly what you mean about the weekend getaways. They were/are the best!

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  10. I did long distance too, for almost 2 years. It is really hard! What a unique story of how you met.

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  11. Brett,

    I couldn't find your email address anywhere but I wanted to let you know that I nominated you for the Liebster Award! :)

    The details are on my blog today!

    XO
    Sara
    Life as a Hughes

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  12. This is so sweet!! Props to you guys for making it work being literally coast to coast away from each other!! Wow! Congrats to you both!

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