Events By Ashley

"Forever" Friday

The Groom's Perspective.....

In May of 2007 I began working at a bank as I was nearing the end of my life in college graduating with a finance degree. I met and became close with one person in particular named Michelle. After working together for a few months at a very slow branch, I felt like I knew her better than many of the people in my life I had known for years. Michelle was from a small town west of Wichita called Garden Plain and was one year younger than me. On many occasions, we would get together outside of work and often our friends from outside of the bank would meet us as well. On this particular night, I had gone out with my manager and one of my close friends. We had talked to Michelle on and off and we decided to meet at Emerson Biggins. On this night Michelle had a friend named Amber with her who I’d never met. I immediately took note of this beautiful blond haired girl. As the evening went on, I learned that this girl was a long time friend of Michelle’s from high school who was back in town only for spring break. I left that night intrigued and eager to learn more about this girl from Michelle.

Over the course of the next few days, I blew up Michelle’s inbox inquiring about this Amber girl. Michelle told me a lot of their history and eventually explained to me that Amber had a boyfriend currently and that they had been on and off for many years, beginning in high school. This definitely got my spirits down, but I still kept hope. A few weeks later, I found myself again in a similar situation at Emerson Biggins, this night Amber was out for her mom’s birthday. We again exchanged small talk keeping in mind that this girl was still off limits. I left that night and by this point, I knew something was different about Amber, and I knew she was someone special. Sometime in April we became facebook friends, which made it easier to keep tabs on each other’s lives. We eventually met up at Indigo in Old Town one night. We both had a lot of friends out with us and I remember standing in the exact same spot the entire evening talking to Amber. It truly felt like no one else was in the room and nothing else mattered. I knew that was the start of something great.

As summer rolled around, this blonde beauty began showing up at my bank branch, possibly because it was convenient or possibly because she was developing a “thing” for me as well. To this day, I’m convinced she came by to flirt with me, but she still claims different. From there things began to progress. The relationship Amber had been in began to fall apart and I happened to be around at just the correct time. Amber claims that I blew her off on more than one occasion, but actually it was a combination of nerves and maybe even a little intimidation. I was already feeling things for this girl that I hadn’t felt with anyone in my past and I’d truly only met her twice. From there, we began dating and things only got better and more exciting. I’d met her family who were second to only my own and eventually I fell in love. We began ring shopping and finally in Beaver Creek, Colorado I staged an ice skating spill and asked the woman of my dreams to become my wife and thankfully she agreed.