Wedding Date on Apr 22, 2017

From The Bride: Braden and I met during our time at the University of Kentucky- thanks to my best friend Hollie (she would want me to point this out). After being acquaintances throughout undergrad, we began actually dating during our senior year. Something to note here is that in the beginning of our relationship I specifically said we could never get married because my name would then be Grace Pace. I guess life has a funny way of working out! After graduation, I attempted to find a job in Kentucky to stay near Braden and my friends that had become family- but during a trip to Florida with Braden, I found out that I had landed a job back home in Northern Virginia. Moving ten hours away didn't make things easy for a relationship that was fairly new, but we made it work and had a lot of fun in the meantime. We both became very familiar with the airport and were pretty much experts when it came to making a flight (read: sprinting through security) on a Friday after work and sleepily making it back on a Sunday. After over a year of travelling back and forth between the bluegrass and our nation's capital, Braden decided he'd better make it official. On a trip to DC before leaving to go to a Wizards game- Braden pulled me aside in the hallway of my apartment on New Year's Day and got down on one knee. I may have thought he was about to break up with me since he was acting weird seconds before he popped the question, but he later assured me that he wouldn't have purchased a flight to come all the way there to do that :) To anyone else, a hallway proposal might sound less than romantic, but to me it was perfect. We were able share that special moment, just the two of us, which was especially good since my reaction would've apparently been, "embarrassing in public." All jokes aside, that evening was one I will never forget. I may have not witnessed a second of the basketball game we attended, as I was busy staring at my ring, but being with friends and celebrating our milestone was really special. Fast forward to being engaged for over a year- and me making the big move back to the south - Braden was an absolute trooper as we navigated the sometimes stressful waters of wedding planning. Not even the rain could dampen our very special day on April 22. Sandwiched right in between my birthday and Braden's birthday it was better than I could've ever imagined. Looking around and seeing friends and family from all parts of mine and Braden's lives was one of the coolest things I have ever experienced. Even cooler was being able to call my absolute best friend and biggest supporter my husband. It is truly humbling that people travelled far and wide to celebrate with us and we couldn't be more thankful. This video that Alyson created is something we will treasure forever and it captured some of our very favorite moments from our big day. The wedding day was over in a blink of an eye. so it is such a gift to be able to sit down and really reflect by way of this video.