Our Story Part 1: How We Met- The Dating Years

We didn’t have the typical boy meets girl and they fall in love instantly kind of story. Instead, girl liked boy first, and boy was oblivious to it all. With us coming up on our four year anniversary this May, we thought it would be fun to share a little bit of our own love story and how we got to where we are today. So for part one, it’s all about the awkward dating years, plus our awkward first photos together. Also, shoutout to those Instagram filters! 🙂

We first met when Nikki was a freshman in high school and started attending the same church that Halton was at. Halton’s dad was the youth pastor at the church (and still is) and his entire family attended too (have we mentioned Halton is one of seven kids?!). It certainly wasn’t a love at first sight meeting. We went to the same church and same events so we saw each other frequently, but we lived two separate lives, dating other people and doing our own thing for years. It wasn’t until after Nikki graduated high school that Halton really caught her eye. See, Nikki was/is best friends with his sister Bethany, so they were always hanging out, and it was a normal thing for Nikki to be around Halton a lot. But something about that summer after high school and Nikki knew she had to have him.

Like we said at the beginning, Halton was absolutely clueless when it came to noticing that Nikki liked him. Once Halton finally caught on, he got up the courage and asked her on their first date. Halton showed up with a bouquet of roses and being from a large Italian family, he took her to Buca di Beppo for dinner. One of the best parts about that night was when we were on our way to the restaurant and Halton meant to click the button to turn on his head lights, but instead hit the windshield wiper button because he was so nervous and the loud noise made us both jump. He was so embarrassed, but it was so cute!

After that first date, the rest was history! From movie dates, to going out for snow cones, to attending church trips and events together, we did it all. We dated each other for three years before we got married and we always had so much fun together. Both of our families even went on a family vacation together to Disney World and it was the best time! Since Nikki was already best friends with his sister, it was an easy mix into his family. Halton was always the romantic type, great with surprises and always remembering the little things, and Nikki was always head-over-heels in love.

After the couple years of dating, next came the proposal and you will definitely not want to miss that story. So stay tuned for part two coming soon! In the meantime, we are really throwing it back with some of the pictures from when we first met and started dating, so enjoy this trip down memory lane!

If you enjoyed this story, be sure to stay tuned for part two! We have also already shared about how we started this journey of a photography business together so be sure to check that out too!

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