We met in high-school in 1998 in Mesa, AZ through a mutual friend. I stopped trying to set him up with a single friend of mine when I realized I was the one with a giant crush on him. We flirted by throwing french fries at each other at lunch. A year later we had our son, Nicodemus, and moved into an apartment together not long afterward. On our wedding day, we will have been together for 11 years, despite the fact that we have completely opposite personalities.

We have talked about getting married for years, but school and finances were always the bigger priority. In June 2008, we went on our annual vacation to Six Flags Magic Mountain in California. On our last rollercoaster of the day, just before the first drop, Gary yelled out “Hey honey, what do you think about getting married?” and the camera caught my reply just as we went into the plunge.

Nicodemus Demitri Kyllingstad was born on October 23rd, 1999 and is our first and only child. He will be ten years old at our wedding and will be part of the bridal party. We told Nic we planned to get married as soon as we returned from our engagement trip, and he was thrilled. He even asked Gary if he could be his “best son/flower-boy”. Nic has been the biggest and best part of our shared lives and it is important for us to include him as much as possible in both our planning and the wedding, itself. The three of us live in Queen Creek, Arizona with our year-old Jack Russell terrier, Charlie.