It was 8th grade junior high. She was dating and he became the note messenger between them. That was the extent of their interaction outside of the math classroom. Fast forward to senior year of high school when they actually started talking to each other. She wasn’t a big fan of him, but they hung out with the same group of people each morning before school started. He eventually won her over and they became friends.

As their friendship grew, they transitioned from friends to companions. She describes the moment she first knew he was going to be the one she would marry: “[It was] when we were talking about having children because he had the exact same response as my dad did when my mom had asked him a certain question. After my mom gave birth to my older brother, my mom looked at my dad scared because they had just had their first child and said, ‘What do we do now?’

“My dad’s response was, ‘We just love him.’ Jared and I were talking about having children in the future and I was joking about how scared I would be after we had the baby and I said, ‘What would we do after we had him or her?’ Jared’s response was, ‘You just love them.'”

For him, a brief break up in 2008 made him realize just how much she meant to him. These two were made for each other.

Corrie loves Halloween so it was only perfect for Jared to time the engagement for late October. It was around dinner and she had just put in one of her favorite Halloween movies. She noticed Jared was very anxious for the trick-or-treaters to come which was unusual for him. She remembers asking him, “What is your deal? You are never like this.” He laughed and brushed it off.

The door bell rang soon after that and Jared told her, “There you go, Corrie! The trick-or-treaters are here. Better hurry up and get it.” He disappeared into the laundry room unnoticed while she opened the door. She look down to see his cousin’s young children and started to say hi, but stopped when she saw they were holding a sign that read, “Will you marry me?”

She yelled to Jared, “Jared, is this real?!” As the kids started walking inside, she noticed they were dressed as a bride & groom. She got confused because she didn’t know if those were their actual costumes or if a proposal was happening. “After feeling like a dork for not figuring out what was going on, Jared finally appeared with a pumpkin he had carved and the ring. I shrieked, ‘Is this real?!?’ He came over by me and the kids and got down on one knee and said, ‘Well, will you marry me?’ I didn’t answer right away because I was crying so Jared nervously said again, ‘Well, what do you say?’ I was finally able to muster out a yes. It took a bit, but the kids finally got their candy.

We began their session at a family farm. The foliage and greenery was perfect to frame these two!!!

I love how she always holds his pinky finger.

We then drove out to Lake MacBride to finish it out with the beautiful water and sunshine.