One of my absolute dearest friends married her husband 5 years ago this weekend. Dana and Jake had a beautiful ceremony and reception in Tampa and I was so privileged to be standing by her side as they wed.
Crowsy, as I still call her, and I met in high school - specifically, during the first period on the first day of junior year - where we were both the new kids on the block.
Friendship from that early morning English class also led to many musical adventures (including a snowed-in trip our senior year to NYC!), outdoor movies in Hyde Park, driving around and singing Destiny's Child/country music in harmony, beach trips, taco shack visits (may it rest in peace) and then continued on into 4 years of garnet and gold.
The fun continued at FSU with Worship on Landis, BCM activities, jumping/getting thrown in the Westcott Fountain, sitting through scorching hot and pouring down rain football games, driving to Dothan for some Bojangles and ended college as roommates.
Literal roommates, as we liked to say. We somehow shoved two full-size beds in one bedroom and shared that space with late night guitar jamming out to Little Big Town, talking about what God was teaching us, studying or not studying for our respective majors, catching up on each other's day (Jake entered the picture about this time!) and trying to survive the apartment fire.
Side note: Dana once saved my life from what she thought was a fire in our kitchen. Our bedroom door backed right up to that space and when she smelled smoke one morning, she jumped out of her bed, tested the door for heat with the back of her palm and shouted something along the lines of, "It's all going to be OK, Lorin!" Meanwhile our other roommate had just burnt something in the microwave. And I slept through the whole thing. But I still count that as her saving my life :)
Thanks to one of Jake's friends at our dear friend Christina's birthday, the two met our senior year. Although I was SHOCKED that they didn't already know each other, since they have like 100 friends in common!
Their love for the Lord, affection and major talent for all things music (Dana has an extremely beautiful voice and is awesome on the guitar! Jake is an incredibly talented composer and musician!) and silly yet sweet personalities made it so abundantly clear that they were meant to be like two peas in a pod.
We traveled to Nashville to ring in 2016 together with the sweet LaVallees and in between eating delicious food, playing Ticket to Ride and exploring East Nashville, we snuck in sunset anniversary portraits of Dana and Jake in Percy Warner Park, right in the same place they strolled around after Jake proposed!
For the days, weeks, months and years of love past and many more to come, happy anniversary to this incredible couple!
