Brody & Emma

February 24, 2024

We’re going to Antigua!

In late May/Early June of 2016, I (Emma) had just moved into my first off-campus housing and was alone for a week until my roommate moved in for the summer. I wanted to talk to people, so I decided to hop on Tinder purely for conversation. I somehow matched with Brody even though my radius was set to 50 miles and he was more than 50 miles away. His first message to me was a gif of a baby seal waving which was quickly followed up with something along the lines of "Omg I didn't mean to send that, I didn't know how gifs worked on here", but I thought it was adorable. After a few weeks of talking, we planned a first date, during which Brody got to see me make a fool of myself attempting to eat a salad, and about 2 weeks after that we became official on July 7th, 2016. We dated long distance for about 4 years. In those 4 years, we experienced a combined 4 moves, the death of a grandparent, 2 friend breakups, a college graduation, 4 job title changes, and countless visits home and to each other. In the Spring of 2020, I moved to St. Louis and closed the gap from 3 hours to 25 minutes. In February of 2022, I moved in with Brody and his 2 housemates and this was the final step before I would even consider saying yes to a proposal.

For those that don't know, I (Emma) am the budgeter for both of us. So before getting engaged, I 100% expected to see a large charge. So I was completely taken by surprise when on a random Wednesday night Brody got down on one knee. It had been raining all day and Brody went downstairs to let Meekah outside. A few minutes later, he called me downstairs. He was kneeling behind Meekah (I thought wiping her paws off) and asked me to take her paw. I did and then he pulled the ring box out and asked me if I would marry him. I was completely shocked, but of course said yes! After the fact, he explained how he partially paid for the ring with cash he had been saving from tips and his friend paid the rest until he proposed. He ordered the ring on Friday and it was ready to be picked up the following Wednesday, the same Wednesday he proposed. He just couldn't wait :)

Neither of us are into the idea of a traditional wedding. We don't like being the center of attention. We just want to be surrounded by our close friends and family in a beautiful place making fun memories.

We are really excited to travel together starting with our wedding!