Grace & Aaron

The one that almost got away.

I’m convinced Aaron and I were passersby at the apartment where his brother and I were neighbors yet it took a dating app for us to meet. We love to tell the story of our first date. I (Grace) was on Upward for the third time when I matched with Aaron. We messaged a bit—nothing serious. I’d tried every dating app in the book and was beginning to lose hope. I decided to delete the app and unlike the three times before, this time I decided to delete it for good. Well three weeks later I was back on the app and saw that Aaron had messaged me to go on a date the day I deleted the app. Without hearing from someone in three weeks I figured he wasn’t interested but I gave it a shot and he was in! I had fully immersed myself in the dating game with a solid 14-man roster and on the day of our date, I was running late after wrapping up another date in a different town. Little did I know Aaron had this rule about leaving if his dates ran 15 minutes late. Right at the 15 minute mark I walked in and well the rest is history. Well not quite. That first date led to a second date which eventually led to becoming official which eventually led to a surprise engagement on a day that promised rain in Centennial Park in Nashville. In between there were lots of meaningful conversations, tickle wars, a three-month preengagement class, inside jokes, picking the name for our 10th kid, board game nights, Lord of the Rings discussions, prayer, and laughter.