I was actually so surprised to see on my Instagram stories poll that y’all wanted to see “How Rudd & I Met” vs. “My Wedding Inspiration Board” for this week’s #WeddingWednesday post! Can’t blame you though, because I also really love to hear engaged couple’s backstories! This is a story that I’ll definitely be adding to our wedding website. I need to check it off my list anyways, so I’m actually really glad I have a reason to jot it all down today.
Let’s take a little trip back in time, shall we? Welcome to December, 2016.
*Rudd – PLZ do not kill me for these pics!! ?
(Our first picture together! ^^^ Send help!)
Rudd and I originally met in the fall of 2016 through mutual friends at Clemson University during our Junior year. It wasn’t until December 1, 2016 that we actually “hung out” together – he asked me to be his date at his fraternity’s Christmas cocktail, and we’ve been together ever since. Our first “real” date after that was to the Biltmore house (we went back to celebrate our 2-year anniversary last December!) We started officially dating soon after that, and have never looked back!
During the summer of 2017, just a few months after we started dating, we both ended up with internships in Illinois! I interned at Fox News in Chicago and Rudd interned at Archer Daniels Midland in Springfield. We were both WAY out of our comfort zones being so far from home, and being Carolina natives. We rode the train (lol, sounds so old school!) back and forth to see each other that summer. Mostly because I didn’t take my car up there and it would have been really hard for Rudd to park his truck in Chicago. I lived right downtown! We learned so much about life and each other that summer. I will always love telling that part of our story!
When we got back to Clemson in the fall of 2017 for our Senior year, we spent most of our time going to football games and hanging out with friends! We also both got our Clemson class rings, which mean so much to us now. My sister also got married in December of 2017, and I loved getting to introduce Rudd to all of our extended family! The last photo is from Rudd’s fraternity formal in the spring of 2018.
I will forever be thankful that I asked forced Rudd to take graduation pictures with me! I love looking back at them and knowing that we got to walk through that major life event together. Since graduation in May of 2018, I’ve been living and working in SC and Rudd has been doing the same in NC! Less than a year after leaving Clemson, we got engaged!! Now that it’s been over a month since the proposal, I’m knocking out some really big wedding to-do’s and can’t wait to share them with you. That’s our (super condensed) story from the last 2ish years, but I’m so excited for what the future holds!
