“How did y’all meet?” I don’t get asked any question as much as I get asked this. I love it! But, the story is long and people often get confused when I tell it. So, thought this would be a great post. I am also linking it on our wedding site. 🙂 I had Luke write his own side of the story, and he hasn’t let me read it yet, so it will be funny to see how our stories are alike and different.
Here we go….
I don’t know the year or months but I would randomly see him in church and think he was cute, and never thought much more than that. I started seeing him tagged on friends fb pages, so then I knew his name… again, didn’t think much of it.
One day in the spring (I think March) of 2017, I was getting coffee with a friend (that happened to be a guy) at one of my fave coffee spots, Mod, in downtown Galveston. We had just ordered, and the guy I was with was waiting for our order at the end of the counter. I turned around and saw that cute boy I had seen a few times in church further back in the line.. so obviously, in true Haley fashion, I walked up to him and said “Hey! Are you Luke?” and this cute boy in a blue collared shirt responded “yes, ma’am.” I think I made a comment about feeling old because another guy my age had called me ma’am the day before, but I secretly loved it! Luke says he can remember exactly how I looked that day and it goes like this: light to no makeup, high ponytail, t-shirt, and nike shorts. *cringe* (I mean, who wants to walk up to their future husband for the first time looking like that lol) Anyway, he says he remembers because he told himself “remember this moment” because he knew something would come of it, but admits he didn’t know yet it would be marriage.
After this, I think we followed/added each other on social media.. again, still thinking nothing of it. Sometime in the next month I had been talking to my friend Katherine Inman (now Hicks) and telling her my struggles with the guy I had been dating. She was insistent that I needed to meet her friend Luke and that we would really like each other. Apparently she was telling him the same things. I told her “I actually just met him at Mod” haha. (My friends are not at all surprised at how it went down). Two weeks later, end of April, we were at Katherine’s birthday party together. He was a little quiet and reserved, and I was trying to be funny, of course. We didn’t talk too much, but I thought he was really cute. But, since he didn’t talk to me much, I just thought he wasn’t interested . Then, I tried to find things wrong with him and judged him for taking home the leftover beer from the six pack he brought over… *petty* (there may or may not be a theme to this story of me trying not to like him) Flash forward to a few weeks later, Katherine and her now husband, Tanner, got engaged. Her roommates threw a surprise engagement party and Luke and I both attended. I said hi and gave him a hug, but there were a lot more people there than her birthday; and honestly, I remembered how he didn’t talk to me much at Katherine’s birthday, so I didn’t pay too much mind to him. *petty again*
That was the end of that…. so I thought…
Nearly 6 months later….
The day is Sunday December 3, 2017. My mom and I were always going to church together at 11 am mass at this time. *Someone named Luke knew this is the mass we were frequently attending.. sneaky Lukey* Luke is at church early and the church is filling up. So like a true gentleman, he offers his chair to a woman, and she replies “thank you, but I am waiting for my daughter, she’s always late”. That woman was my mom. Luke gave up his seat to another woman and stood in the back, and my mom stood near him because she knew something I didn’t. When I arrived at church, my mom was standing next to cute Luke. When we prayed the Lord’s Prayer and held hands, something just felt right. I cannot explain it. After mass, I introduced him officially to my mom and we chatted a little about nursing school and my upcoming finals. That was it.
My mom and I did not get 5 feet away from him before she said “you’re a fool if you don’t go on a date with him.” I said “he hasn’t even asked me, chill.” In my head I had a feeling he would, and I planned on probably just blowing it off… and my mom telling me to go on a date with him surely wasn’t helping his case. 😉
That night, I’m studying with my roommate at the time at another one of my fave coffee shops, Sugar Bean, when I get a call from a Ponca City, Oklahoma number. I knew it was Luke *side note: he never asked me for my number and he says he feels weird that he got it from Katherine instead of asking me haha* I told my roommate about it, and said I wasn’t going to answer. I didn’t, and he left me a voicemail. She made me call him back, thankfully! lol But, when I did, the phone wasn’t working. I called my BFF, Kimmy, to see if my phone worked on her call, and it did. So of course, I tried to take it as a “sign” I shouldn’t talk to Luke. But, like all good ones, he was persistent. He asked me to go to his work Christmas party overnight in Austin that was the next weekend. Now if you know me, you know good and well I am not about to spend the night out of town with a guy on the first date. I also had work that night, so I told him “maybe another time” really not expecting to ever go on a date with him. He said, okay, what about the next weekend I take you to dinner, and I said sure.
December 15, 2017
I feel like I am giving too many details, so I’ll hit the points. Luke picks me up at the stairs of my apartment, so I was holding it against him that he didn’t come all the way to the door. Y’all, poor Luke, I was literally just looking for all the reasons not to like him. We get in his truck and he tells me where we are going… I tell him I don’t want to go there and we go somewhere else.. way too comfortable from the start. Who does that on a first date? At dinner everything just flowed, I was 100% myself, (which is so rare for me on new dates… I even cussed loudly.. oops!), got my food crumbs all over myself, I even asked Luke to pray before dinner, which I have never done on a first date. After dinner, he *accidentally* misses the turn to my apartment and he keeps driving and we are just talking (and also comfortable in silence). In my head, I am mad like “damn, why do I like this”.. Which is how I was for about 6 weeks.. trying to look for reasons not to like him. I am so glad he didn’t let me, though! Almost 8 weeks after our first date, he showed up at my door with flowers and asked me to be his girlfriend. I jokingly said “no” at first because it was Valentines Day and I said it was cheesy. Right after I agreed, he met my dad and my BFF’s family for the first time. Everyone loved him from the start! Less than 5 months later, he took me to look at rings; and 5 months after that he surprised me with a proposal!
I will get around to a proposal post eventually! 🙂
Thanks for reading this long post!
xo- Haley
Photo: Taylor Greenwalt
