From the Bride:

We met 10 years ago at a game store although we officially worked for the same company in different areas. He was super into playing card games like Magic the Gathering and I was friends with the owners of the shop. We never really dated. We just.. were. Officially, I think the first real date was when we went to a party hosted by friends of his.

Dakota proposed. After many, many twists and turns (and children!) He proposed as I was recovering from covid and under quarantine in our children’s room. I said yes but told him it didn’t count. He then proceeded to ask me at the silliest of times until I begged mercy! We’d been together about 8 years at that point.

Thanks to a Facebook group for Brides getting ready for their own weddings, I found out about Chapel in the Hollow and it was simply perfect. So an East Tennessee wedding it is!

I’m really looking forward to marrying my best friend and father of my children. Our path has been very long and convoluted but it all served a purpose to get us here. I’m also really looking forward to breaking the glass! We loved the time of year and how it sounds when you state the date. I know it’s silly, but it just sounds pleasing to my ear. 

Our weekly date night is after the kids are in bed. We order in dinner that’s not chicken nuggets and watch various cooking competitions where we argue about it to the television. We have 4 children (9, 6, 3, 9 months) so we’re pretty much homebodies right now as he works days and I work nights. The best thing, though, is that we chat pretty much all day via messenger and we’re always sending TikToks to each other (oftentimes we send the same one!) and Dakota is king of taking funny photos of our children and turning them into memes so he can use them as responses. We’re homebodies, but it’s wonderful.