It all started on a cold New Year’s Eve night in 2018.

Jeff messaged me first and I (Amber-Dawn) responded. I thought I was done attempting to meet “the one”, but a friend talked me into trying match .com. I had just gotten home from a game night at my (then) church and was still wide awake. I wanted to stay up till “ball drop” anyway, so I thought I would give online dating one last try. After messaging back and forth a few days, and getting to know a bit about each other, we decided it would be worth meeting in person. 

Casa Mexicana (highly recommend) was the meeting place for our first date on January 5th, 2019. We loved that we could talk about anything, had a few things in common but were also very “opposites attract”, we enjoyed learning about each other’s hobbies and interests and have since grown to share in them through the years. We try to get back to “Casa” on our dating anniversary every year. 

2020 was the year I caught a fiance when Jeff “popped the question”on a fishing excursion on August 30. He may have been the only one to catch a fish that day but I caught a fiance. Not only had the love of my life asked me to marry him, to which I responded “NO WAY!” (poor Jeff) but meant “Yes!”, I now got to plan our wedding, something I thought had passed me by since I was in my late 30s.

Saturday, October 2, 2021 started very stormy and rainy. We were supposed to have an outside “golden hour” (6 pm at that time of year) Butterfly & Birch theme (a little Stargate thrown in to appease our nerdy side) wedding at our beautiful local college campus. We did have a few minutes of no rain, which made for some nice pictures outside but because of standing water (and still more rain) at the amphitheater, we, last minute, had to move the ceremony inside to an auditorium I saw for the first time walking down the aisle. We had rented a horse and buggy, something I said I always wanted at my wedding, (SO ROMANTIC) and although my “bride tribe” and I got to ride in it for a few minutes, Jeff didn’t get to see it, we didn’t get our romantic ride and none of our guests got to ride from the ceremony to the reception as was the plan. The reception site was inside the Eagles Nest Cafeteria and we got to decorate that the night before. It also had a lovely big balcony that we planned to have the “cocktail hour” on, we wrapped lights, had a bubble machine and I even made a S’more kit for each of the tables on the balcony but again…rain/storms. All that being said we got married YAY! Rain is supposed to be good luck on your wedding day….Right?