How we met: Our Beginning

One of my all-time favorite questions to ask couples is “How did you two meet?!” I love learning about the beginning of the journey, the moments that started it all.

High School Sweethearts (kind of….)

Does it count if I was in high school when we met? Ehhh… no probably not haha. I was a senior when my best friend, Kaley, invited me to her dad’s Navy retirement party. She kept telling me her cousin was going to be there and we would be so cute together. I thought that was so so weird, but I would take any chance to hang out with her, so I went! And that cute cousin is now my partner in crime, best friend, father of my kiddos, and love of my life! (I probably should be sending Kaley a gift basket every year on our anniversary as a thank you!)

Elly’s side of the story:

My side of the story isn’t that special lol. I was checking out the buffet when this kid came and sat there and, from my memory, was kind of awkward lol! We chatted a bit and I invited him to come to the mall with us the next day (because that’s what people did for fun back then) and to my surprise he said yes. I didn’t think much of it until we had a chance to really talk later on.

Joey’s side of the story:

I was stationed in Florida for school and I went up to Georgia for my Uncle’s retirement party. While I was thereafter saying hey and shaking hands with everyone I was sitting talking to my grandma. My cousin came in with a friend (Elly) and I immediately thought she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. I told my Grandma that I had to go and say something to her and my Grandma urged me on.

A couple of moments later I saw that Elly was getting some food. I moved in absolutely nervous and I had no game plan as to what I would say. I grabbed a plate to get some food as well, Elly made a comment about the food and I made a joke. Terrified, I didn’t know how the joke played out, but a second later she laughed and I was victorious! I just made the prettiest girl I had ever seen laugh. I don’t remember what the joke was. You could have asked me five minutes later and I wouldn’t remember I was just ecstatic that I talked to her. 

We didn’t exchange phone numbers.

Okay so needless to say, Joey wins at the first look portion of this story. He is such a sweetie 💕

So the rest of the night and into the early morning, we talked and talked. (still do to this day and Joey is amazing as how much I think and talk, haha).

I know that sounds crazy after how much we clicked, but Joey didn’t live in Augusta, he was just there for the retirement party, and I was 2 years younger. So we just went our separate ways. After about 5 days, I get a call from Kaley saying that Joey wanted my phone number, and so that is where the true magic happened. We shared a long-distance relationship for 1.5 years before getting engaged and then married. It had a ton of challenges, but I wouldn’t give up those late-night talks and anticipated visits for anything. It was truly the perfect start to our story.