Whenever I first talk to couples, I always ask to hear a little of their story. How they met. How he proposed. What excites them most about the wedding day. Then, sometime around the engagement session I ask the couple to write out their story from beginning to now. Can I confess something to you? I almost always tear up when I read these! I’m such a sentimental sap, but it’s so sweet to hear the stories of two imperfect people who find each other, fall in love and choose to continue loving each other for a lifetime.

Tyra and Nehemiah (Nemo)’s story was one of those stories.

They first met at a mutual friend’s house when Tyra was in 7th grade and Nemo was a freshmen at Southeast High School. As she transitioned to high school, her dad was very adamant about focusing on schoolwork and activities because “boys are only a distraction”. For a few weeks they exchanged stories about our educational ambitions and humanitarian aspirations, but stayed friends…for then. He was a captain on the football team and she was a varsity cheerleader, so they would catch glimpses of one another in between plays and during warm-ups, but she still wasn’t allowed to date so he was just a crush. In 2009, they joined Student Council at the same time. That December, Tyra remembers Nemo walking across the basketball court during a JV game to come sit in my direction. THAT was the first time she really SAW him. The best she can describe the feeling is that her heart was very comforted by the presence of him. He sat only one person away from her, in the same row. She kept glancing at him, always a few seconds after his glances at her; both pretending to be watching the basketball game. FINALLY, she found a point of conversation. “Wow, your iPhone screen is cracked pretty badly.” Her reply was the perfect continuation of the great conversations they shared last summer. The next day at school, he asked her for my number and became the only guy she ever gave my number to. (How sweet is THAT?) He saved her name as Snow Angel and she saved his as Snow Bear since they would write messages to each other in the snow over our winter break. (Cue the “awwwww”.)

On March 3rd, 2010, she was on her way home from an exhausting away basketball game. As the team bus pulled into the school parking lot, she saw Nehemiah leaning against her car, in the pouring rain, with a few things in his hand. As she approached him, he handed her a teddy bear, a Snickers (her favorite at the time), and a handwritten letter that was starting to get wrinkled. He told her to wait until I got home before I opened the letter, kissed me on my forehead, and we parted. She raced home and opened the letter of him asking her to become his girlfriend! Of course she searched her recent messages for Snow Bear and said, “I would love to be your girlfriend!” even though she was 16 at the time and wasn’t allowed to have a boyfriend until she turned 17.  They spent that first year hanging out at Springfield Lake bonding on the dock, eating picnic lunches, and feeding the ducks with old bread. While she thought her dad had no idea, once she asked him about dating on my 17th birthday he said, “You think I didn’t already know you were dating?”. Her response? “What should we get for birthday dessert?”

After finishing her degree at Northern Illinois University in 2016, she became really adamant about Nehemiah going back to school. At that time he was working full time and trying to develop a plan to finish his last two years at Rice University in Houston, TX. She really wanted to see him pursing the academic goals and humanitarian dreams we talked about during the summer of 2008. Then one day she was hit with the unexpected: Nehemiah asked me to join him in his quest to finish his degree…ALL THE WAY IN TEXAS! Tyra had never been so far away from my family before… I had no job there or even one friend. But, every cell in her body wanted to see him succeed and happy. Why not? So she said yes.

Within a few weeks, they were ready to head to Texas. Nemo wanted to plan a going away party for her, which was all part of a master plan that Tyra knew nothing about.

The night of the party, they sat together at the park with all of our close friends and family of all ages. This “send-off” turned out to be a slideshow of pictures taken throughout their six years of dating. There wasn’t a dry eye in the audience once the show ended. At the end, he grabbed her hand, pulled her in front of everyone, and dropped down on one knee. The entire crowd of loved ones roared and cheered. Tyra was still in shock and heard nothing but silence. Once her senses came back to her, she hugged him and said YES! He gave her a duct tape ring and told her the real ring wasn’t ready yet, so she giggled and showed it off anyway! He shed a few tears and they were both exited for what the next few steps would be like! The next day, he proposed again in front of her immediate family and this time with the real engagement ring. Then it finally hit them; not only were we moving to TEXAS, but they were also ENGAGED!

We met up this winter at their high school for some pictures. It was freezing that day, but we got some great pictures inside the school and then a few quick photos downtown Springfield. When they came back from Texas this month, we were able to do more outdoor photos at Lincoln Memorial Gardens outside Springfield.