Happy 10 years to Travis and I! Travis and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary yesterday on March 19th with our two girls and had a blast. Today we snuck away to celebrate just the two of us at the Crescent Hotel in Dallas.
In an effort to share the celebration with you guys, we thought it would be fun so share the story of how we met! We also answered some of the questions you all submitted on instagram and you can read it all below! We hope our story inspires you and most of all we hope you see God’s love through us and our marriage!
How We Met:
Before I get into the story of how we met, I want to provide a little background information because it’s crazy that we didn’t meet sooner than we did. Travis and I both grew up in Richardson, TX. Although we lived in the same school district, we went to different elementary schools and junior highs. I actually went to elementary school with his lifelong best friend. Then in 9th grade (junior high at the time), I moved to Chicago. Had I not moved, we would have both attended the same high school and been in the same grade. Crazy, right? We are both so glad that didn’t happen because we’re not sure we would have dated each other at that point.
Onto the good stuff though. Travis and I both went to Baylor University and although we were both heavily involved in greek life, we didn’t actually meet until the end of our Senior year. If you’re familiar with Baylor, you know that each spring the fraternities and sororities put on a mini broadway-like show called All University SING. Typically each frat or sorority puts on their own 7 minute act. But, our senior year his fraternity, Kappa Sigma, and my sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, did a combined act, which one first place by the way.
So, we met and got to know each other as friends during the months of SING practice, which started around February of our senior year. We had so much fun together right away, but were not romantically interested at first. I didn’t think Travis was “my type.” Travis wore skinny jeans, deep v-neck tees, and had long ringlet curly hair past his shoulders. He had that “cool guy” vibe and I just didn’t think of him romantically (yet).
But, we spent hours practicing for SING together, lots of time hanging out outside of practice, and went to several events together. We had a blast as friends! Then one May night after hanging out with a big group of guys and girls, my roommate and I came home and she told me she had something to tell me.
My roommate, Erika, told me that Travis had asked her permission to take me out on a date and she said yes. Not only that, but the date was supposed to be the next night. I was not happy that they left me out of this decision. But, I agreed to go.
The following night Travis picked me up and we attempted to dine at some of Waco’s finest restaurants (insert sarcasm). We’re not sure what was going on that night, but every place we tried to go to was booked full. We tried Cheddar’s, Outback Steakhouse, but ultimately ended up eating at Olive Garden of all places. Although the food wasn’t what we thought, we talked nonstop for hours. The conversation was easy and good and all of a sudden there was an instant romantic attraction.
From that night on we saw each other almost every single day. We studied together, listened to music together, walked the Bear Trail together, hung out, and just got to know each other on a deeper level.
May came and went and Travis graduated from Baylor (I had one more semester), and then he headed off to Europe for 3 weeks with two of his best guy friends. This is the trip where we really fell in love with each other. Each night while Travis was in Europe he would write me a love letter (via email) and I fell hard. At this same time, one of my good guy friends and fellow English major was on the trip with Travis singing my praises and telling Travis I was worth pursuing. This helped seal the deal for Travis I think. Thank you, Trey. 😉
Fast-forward about a month (2 months from our first date) and Travis flew to visit me in Chicago for the 4th of July. While he was visiting he said “I love you” for the first time and I said it back. We knew at that instant we would marry each other. It was a done deal.
Although we knew we were the one for each other, we were still quite young and wanted to do life with each other before getting married. So, we dated a solid 3 or so years before getting engaged and we are both so glad we did!
Q&A:
Which anniversary was your favorite and why?
Honestly, we had trouble remembering what we did for each of them. After some discussion, we think our first anniversary was our most memorable. For one, we had just moved into our favorite condo in Uptown. We recall having a charcuterie board on our patio followed by steaks and our wedding cake topper. The most memorable part of our first wedding anniversary though was the beautiful dinner that Travis’s parents served us. They prepared a beautiful dinner for us on their back patio and we had the best time reminiscing on the year prior. Our wedding day was truly a beautiful experience thanks to our parents, family, and friends!
Early couple here wanting to do everything before kids! Favorite – must haves before kids.
Travis – travel & if you want to try and live somewhere before kids to experience culture, do it before you have kids. Travis (and I) truly believe that you should live wherever you want pre-kids so you don’t have to worry about school districts or moving kids once they’re grounded. Live somewhere vibrant and cool even if in your own town! We loved living in uptown around cool things and having the ability to walk to everything we did! We would have lived there forever were it not for kids.
Anna – my recommendation would be to travel, save money, and continue to grow in your faith together. Our original plan was to travel until we were 30 and wanted to have kids. My health had other plans, but we traveled as much as we could and highly recommend it. Once you have kids, it’s harder (emotionally and physically) to leave them. So, travel abroad as much as you can! I also recommend saving as much money as you can before you have kids because kids are expensive. And finally, putting your faith first in your marriage will serve you well!
In the year 2021, how do y’all manage time spent on phones/devices?
Travis – “we don’t have a rule, but we tend to not be buried in our phones, especially around kids.”
Anna – unfortunately I have to be on my phone a lot for my job, so I struggle more with this than Travis. He is super patient with me and I try my best to not be on it with the kids and to tell him when I have to be on it for work. If I’m being honest, being on electronics has really never been an issue for us. We have a mutual understanding for limited our “screen time” and we are both okay with constructive criticism from the other when we are spending too much time on our phones.
My best advice is to just have a continual dialogue about these things. If we’ve learned one thing about marriage it’s that communication is key!
How did you know when the other one was “the one??”
Travis – “Oh man, very early on.” Travis says he knew within a month or so, but definitely before he said I love you (which was about 2 months into dating). He says there was no “aha” moment, he just knew quickly.
Anna – I have to agree with Travis that there was no “aha” moment for me either. I definitely knew by the time we said I love you. I just remember telling my family that first summer we dated that I was going to marry him and they for sure thought I was crazy.
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