Our Love Story

The first time I saw Luke, I thought to myself, "Wow, he's really cute."

It was the summer of 2011.  I was one of the directors for the Collegiate Dance Company.  For the first time in the dance department history, the three Collegiate teams - Ballroom, World, and Contemporary - were combined into one company.  Lucky for me they decided to do that...because that is how we met.

There were never many guys who were on the company so he was pretty easy to spot ;)  I was in a tap number and my practices just happened to be right after his.  So our paths crossed often.  He would sometimes stay awhile to watch our practices.  This tap dance happened to be on the verge of seductive (well, as much as BYU-I allows), so I always tease him saying that's the real reason he stayed.  Haha.

I still smile thinking about it...

Practice after practice I would try my hardest to come up with a reason to run into him so we could talk.  At the time he was also playing competitive soccer so he always disappeared right after practices to get to his soccer practices.  Gah!  

After 2-ish months of this, and Collegiate was ending, he and some mutual friends of ours decided to grab a Jamba.  Finally I thought this would be the chance to actually say something more than just "hi" to him.  I flirted like my life depended on it!  And he flirted too.  So I thought.

Needless to say I went home without getting asked out.  I felt a little better when I got on FB and saw that he had added me as a friend.  Immediately I got out my stalking skills ;)  But the thought kept coming back to me that he STILL hadn't asked me out.  Feeling a little bummed, I got off FB and called my mom.  While I was complaining to her that this boy was taking his sweet time, I had the weird feeling to get back on FB.  So I get back on and he is on chat.  Of course I'm not going to be the one to start a conversation so I waited, hoping he would.  And he did!  And do you know what he said?  "Hey, could I get your number so I can ask you on a date?"  I was ecstatic!  I was still talking to my mom and told her what just happened.  She apparently knew it was only a matter of time.

Well, I must say our first date was all that I imagined and more.  We went on a bike ride, sat on a little bridge talking while we dipped our feet in the canal, went to the Nature Park and made rings out of dollar bills, and lastly got frozen yogurt at Twizel Berry.  

When he took me home that night, he had a little gift for me!  A pinecone with a secret message on it.  It took me a little bit to decipher, but in the end it read, "I like your hair."  Haha.  Isn't he just the cutest??

The next day I left for Colorado for a few days, but he kept in touch and asked me out again for the day I got back, and the next, and the next.  I was falling for him.

When the semester ended he told me what I was already feeling for him, that he was falling for me.  It made my heart melt.  Six months later we were engaged to be married.  Now, after 20 months of marriage, I still feel like I'm falling for him.  Just more and more everyday in the little things he does.  He is the love of my existence.  I am the love of his existence.  We are one through the good times and the rough times.  He chooses to look at my potential rather than my flaws and for that I love him even more.  I know that we both have an ugly side to our "christmas tree", but he teaches me to look past that.  And because of that, I know we'll be able to get through anything.

{Photos courtesy of Li-Sha Weggeland}