The Road To I Do

Well you started reading... Does that mean you're coming?! For many of you this is a destination wedding. For us, it's sharing our home with our favorite people. And we know this is not any easy trip for everyone, but I have to say, if everything goes to plan, it's going to be worth your travel... For a lot of our relationship we lived on "why not." So again, why not. Each and every one of you, we truly care for. It's a short list and I'm not trying to beg but why not just spend a weekend with us! We're getting married at the beautiful Flathead Lake, so join us the day after the wedding at our favorite swimming hole!

We wanted to do some sort of blog style leading up to our wedding. We think we are pretty cool people and you must think so too if you're willing to read this. So we'll write to all 10 of you as much as possible from now until the wedding. We want to tell you about us but we also want to hear from you! At the end of every blog, there will be a question for people to answer! We want to read your answers, learn from what you said and maybe laugh while reading it. So welcome, we're John and Emma! And this is "The Road To I Do".

PART ONE

John: Let's rewind from the start of this love story. I was born and raised in Kentucky. Lived in the same town all my life with my entire family in a 30 minute radius of each other. I feel like I always ventured a little further. I went to college 3 hours away, took a study away class in Missoula in 2019 and fell in love with the area. I even walked through the University of Montana campus on that trip and I always wondered if I passed Emma along the way.

Once I graduated college, I accepted a job with Montana Conservation Corps (MCC) in February of 2023 in Helena MT. At this time, it was like I clicked the restart button. I began to be comfortable going in a restaurant and eating alone, going on the long hikes and absorbing the nature that surrounded me. I learned independence once I moved away from home but this was the first time I really felt like it was just me. Back then, I thought Montana was a year long commitment. But does anything go fully to plan?

~ Emma: The universe knew what it was doing when it threw John into my life (and my Tinder feed)! At this time, I was super independent, working on my personal growth and had sworn off dating lol. But John was instantly different from anyone I had ever met and it was so scary but so fun!

John: It only two weeks of living in Montana and I started talking to Emma. She messaged me on Tinder first and said she liked my freckles. I said I liked her smile and that kickstarted our future together. I lived two hours away from her but for our first date we went all over Missoula hiking, thrifting and eating. I remember thinking Emma had her life in order and was way more mature than me. I truly thought she was better than me in all the categories. We had conversations on our first date that I don't think most couples would have in the first month.

~ Emma: Our first date, John drove two hours to meet me in Missoula and we spent literally an entire day together. (This is actually a great itinerary for anyone visiting Missoula for the day lol.) We walked from my tiny, old apartment in the university district and along the river trail to have lunch downtown at Michi Ramen. After exploring a few shops, we walked back to my apartment and then drove to Waterworks Hill for a hike that overlooks Missoula. Next, we came back to my place and I gave him a tour before dinner at Ciao Mambo where I kicked his ass in Tic Tac Toe (and I still do). We drove to the "top of the world" in the South Hills to watch the sunset and then ended the night by talking in John's truck for hours. We talked about everything. And then he drove two hours back home with only a hug goodbye!

John: After our first date we quickly started spending all of our free time together. We'd split our time between Missoula and Helena, I loved it all! Working for MCC I was on hitch for 9 days at a time and had 4 days off. I made sure that my entire 4 days were spent with Emma. We didn't have service on hitch, which meant no talking to Emma for 9 days at a time. At first it was scary not knowing if she was still invested in me. Every night on hitch I would message Emma knowing that they would say "not delivered" and tell her about my day and she did the same. Every time we came back into service we would get all the notifications from the previous 9 days. I loved hearing Emma's voice through the videos she would send me while I was gone. I caught myself smiling the whole time reading and listening to her daily updates. This is when I knew I was getting into something that may make me stay in Montana. I loved the effort that both of us had to put in. The difficult things are worth it! Moment after moment we started to know each other on a deeper level.

~ Emma: We spent the summer doing long distance, writing essays to each other, exploring as much of Montana as possible and falling in love. Before we knew it, John was moving to Missoula and the rest is history! We now live with our two cats (Dandelion and Cowboy), we started a business, traveled a ton and built an amazing life together.

John: I have to be honest, being away from home was very hard for me. I lost both of my grandparents and my childhood dog within the first year of us dating. What helped me get through this all was Emma. She quickly turned into not only my girlfriend but my best friend. That's what made it easy to stay and even easier to ask her to marry me!

We hope you can meet us in Montana :)!

With love from Emma and John

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