The Love Story

Well, by the time this blog posts, it will be 10 days until my wedding day. WOAHHH! Whenever I have an engagement party or bridal shower, people always want to hear the story of how Billy and I met. So, I figured maybe some of you would want to hear the story! 

The love story started back in 2009, before there was love involved. Billy and I were both music majors at Samford University and we ended up being in the same Music History class. There was a group of 4 of us (that included Billy) and we all sat together every class and named ourselves "the quad." This was a very exclusive group, where I took all the notes for the class and then taught the other three people all the information. Looking back, it looks like our responsibilities were uneven, but oh well, I got an A in the class! I was dating someone else at the time, so Billy and I were strictly friends and study buddies. After many study sessions for the Music History class, the quad also started hanging out outside of class, and doing one of my favorite activites, playing Rock Band. (Also looking back, I wish I spent more time playing real instruments than fake video game instruments during college.)

The quad playing Rock Band

As I got to hang out with Billy more, he became one of my greatest friends in college and he was the person that I always wanted to invite somewhere because he made everything more fun. We had lots of inside jokes, like our rap group called Magically Delicious, where our rapper names were Four Leaf and Pots O' Gold. (We still argue over who is who, we both want to be Four Leaf.)

Billy and I posing for our Rap album cover

But alas, our good times came to an end and we parted ways when we graduated college. (I'm still mourning the loss of college every day of my adult life.) I ended up breaking up with the guy I was dating after college, but moved straight to NYC, and Billy stayed in Birmingham and taught percussion at a High School and worked at a coffee shop. It seemed there was no way our paths would cross again. 

But THEN! My friend Shara started working with Billy at the coffee shop. 

Me and my beloved friend Shara!

It turns out, the only thing they had in common at first was...me! So according to Shara, Billy started talking about me...a lot! One day she texted me from work and said, "Billy has talked about you our whole 5 hour shift. I think he is in love with you!" I responded, "Oh I love Billy too, he is such a ball of sunshine!" (But not really meaning love love, just more generally loving him as a person and not thinking anything of it since I was 1,000 miles away!) But in true texting-miscommunication-fashion, Shara took the loving him a little farther...and told him I was in love with him! So, after a few weeks of middle school communication via our friend Shara, Billy and I both decided that we would talk on the phone and see if there was anything there! I was a little hesitant at first, thinking maybe nothing would come out of it, but it turns out we had a lot to talk about. We ended up talking on the phone for about 4 hours each night. One time, we talked on the phone for 8 hours! I don't think I ever slept during that time! After 2 months of long distance phone talking, I finally flew to Birmingham to go on our first date. Although Billy paid for our first date with a gift card he had, I decide to let that go (obviously not, because I still bring it up!) and we made our relationship official. 

We spent the first 1.5 years of our relationship long distance, buying plane tickets every chance we got. Then, we decided it was time to move to the same city, and we chose Nashville, TN. We've now been dating 4 years, but we're about to start the marriage countdown at 0 in 10 days! It's cool to look back and see how the person I always wanted to hang around in college is the one I will hang around with forever! He is still a ball of sunshine and my best friend. I'm glad I gave that phone call a chance, and I'm glad my friend Shara was determined to be a matchmaker. I couldn't think of a better match!