Every couple has a love story, and one of our favorite parts of being wedding photographers is hearing new stories every day! Now we think it’s time for us to share ours. This is for you to get to know us – all about us – so that you can understand major milestones in our lives, and the impactful moments that have shaped us as people and as a team!
This is how it’s going to work: we will mutually agree on prompts, moments, or experiences to write about, and then we do it 100% separately. These are our totally unmitigated, non-agreed-upon perspectives on the various situations that have peppered our lives. We hope you enjoy!
Part One: The First Time We Met
our first “date”:
He said:
To offer a little context here: I had, by chance, developed a friendship with one of Holly’s best friends in the Spring semester of 2012. I had made clear to this mutual friend that I would potentially be interested in Holly given the opportunity to get to know her, and that I would greatly appreciate an introduction. Friend was nice enough to set up a hangout for all of us in Mueller Park (before the rest of the development surrounded it) on Sunday afternoon.
It was about 8:30PM the Friday before our Sunday get-together, and I was hanging out with aforementioned other redheaded friend. I was thinking a lot about Sunday – I hadn’t had a girl want to spend time with me in a while and this was an exciting proposition. Like most Friday nights, we were just a couple of hooligans looking for something to do, when I get a text from Holly and I’s mutual friend. Her and a few other friends (including Holly) were going to go swimming at a hotel pool, and they wanted us to come. Jackpot. But first, they wanted us to meet them at Target. Also jackpot.
I was nervous. I was officially crushin’ on this girl, and I had no prep-time or forewarning before we were going to go and meet up with her. We had also had super limited interaction, none outside of school, and I had no idea what to expect. I was going to have to be cool as a cucumber. When we arrived at Target, everyone but us rushed inside, and I lost my composure real quick. I forgot any of my qualities that may have made me interesting or unique or a person, so I channeled my inner Fast and Furious, and I blurted out “HAVE YOU EVER BEEN DRIFTING?!” This may have not been exactly how it happened, but this is what my neurotic brain remembers. Holly, being the sweet, wonderful, nonjudgmental person that I would eventually learn that she was, had not in fact been drifting before and climbed into my Toyota Celica.
We spent the next 5-10 minutes doing handbrake turns around the Target parking lot and I only hit one curb. With the ice initially broken, we made our way inside Target, and spent the best 30 minutes my life (thus far) laughing, joking, helping me choose a new deodorant, and all sorts of hooligan stuff. Honestly, going swimming was fun, but this was the part of the night that I really remember. It was amazing getting to spend 3-4 hours with Holly, without pressure, having the opportunity to get to know someone new. This was where I realized that this incredible, beautiful girl might actually be interested in me. I think I kissed her on the cheek at the end of the night, I barely remember. All I knew was that I really couldn’t wait for Sunday.
She said:
The first thing I remember is someone telling me AJ thought I was cute, and that he had this list of like the cutest girls in school and I was in the top 3 (to this day I make fun of him for even having a list). That started this snowball of anticipation for me. A few weeks later, I’m sitting in a Target dressing room with my friends and I’m starstruck thinking, “AJ’s coming??” Looking back, I think it’s fitting our very first hang out sesh was wandering through a target, considering that’s a staple in our present day.
The next half hour is a blur, and when it’s time to go home AJ is like, “Can I give you a ride?” Just another reason why he is that much cooler than me: he’s not driving his parents’ minivan. The drive is maybe 5 minutes, but first he speeds to an empty corner of the parking lot and says “Have you ever drifted before?” I shake my head no, I have no idea what that means. I’m just crossing my fingers it’s not that dangerous. We fly around in circles until he has to take me back. The next morning, I wake up super early and can’t fall back asleep. It’s a four day weekend, Good Friday to the day after Easter, so we see each other two more times.
I can’t explain how it felt without it sounding cheesy, so brace yourself for cheese. Through all of my teenage anxieties and insecurities, the thought of AJ only made me feel calm. Usually my crushes would put me in a legitimate panic over whether or not they liked me back. But there was a strong feeling of security from the very beginning. Despite the fact that we began our courtship dodging sticky situations (ex-girlfriends, ending friendships, etc. etc.) I was always so sure that we were meant to be. I have one diary entry to signify the beginning of everything, after that four day weekend:
“April 24th, 2011 10:39am
He said I looked cute in his hat.
Happy Easter.”
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