Some love stories take years to unfold.

Ours seemed to happen all at once.

When we found each other, neither of us could have known just how quickly our lives would become intertwined. What began as two people getting to know one another became a best friendship, a love neither of us wanted to imagine life without, and eventually, the beginning of a family of our own.

From the beginning, there was something different about us. We laughed together, grew together, challenged each other, and learned what it meant to truly choose another person. Somewhere between all of the ordinary moments and the unforgettable ones, we stopped picturing our futures separately. It wasn’t just about falling in love anymore, we knew we wanted to build a life together.

And through every part of our story, God continued to remind us that His plans are often so much bigger than the ones we make for ourselves.

On April 29, 2026, Darius asked the easiest question I have ever had to answer. Just over a week later, on May 7, we became husband and wife.

Our first chapter of marriage looked a little different than most. Only weeks after saying “I do,” Darius left to begin his journey in the United States Navy. Instead of spending those first months of marriage coming home to each other every night, we learned how to love each other through handwritten letters, phone calls we never wanted to end, countdowns, prayers, airport goodbyes, and some very long weeks apart.

It wasn’t always easy, but those months taught us something we will carry into every season of our marriage: love isn’t only found in the big, beautiful moments. Sometimes love looks like waiting. Sometimes it looks like sacrifice. Sometimes it is choosing each other from hundreds of miles away and trusting that God is still writing the story even when you can’t see the next page.

On July 30, I finally got to watch Darius graduate from Navy boot camp and see the man I loved accomplish something he had worked incredibly hard for. And although the Navy would send us into another season of distance shortly afterward, we entered it differently—stronger in our marriage, stronger in our faith, and even more certain that wherever life takes us, we want to go there together.

One passage has held a particularly special place in our relationship from the beginning:

“Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.”

Ruth 1:16

Those words have come to mean even more to us as our lives have changed. We don’t know every place we’ll live, every adventure we’ll take, or every chapter God has waiting for us. But we do know who we want beside us through all of it.

So on May 7, 2027—exactly one year after the day we became husband and wife—we aren’t beginning our marriage.

We’re celebrating it.

We’re celebrating a year of choosing one another, growing together, praying together, missing each other, finding our way back to each other, and learning what it truly means to be husband and wife.

Most importantly, we’re celebrating the beginning of everything still to come.

We are so grateful to have the people we love gathered with us as we celebrate our marriage, our family, and the beautiful life God is allowing us to build together.

This is only the beginning of our story.

The best chapters are still ahead.