It's A Love Story Baby Just Say Yes: Part 1

So awhile ago I was writing a 50 things post, and I asked y'all what are some things y'all wanted to know about me.

And I got an overwhelming response for people wanting to know about Chris and me!
I thought it was perfect timing since Chris and I just celebrated 5 years together!
We haven't been married for 5 years we've just been together for 5 years :)

Chris and I first met in September of 2006 at Winthrop University.
It was really by chance!
Chris had stayed a semester longer at college, and I had decided to go to Winthrop at the last minute!
I had made some new friends my first month at school, and one Wednesday evening we walked across campus to meet some friends of theirs to hang out at their house for a little while.

And that was the first time I saw him.
My friends and I were all sitting on the front porch of the house visiting, and he was on the other side of the porch reading the newspaper.
He didn't really say a lot, and the whole time I was with my friends I couldn't help staring!
He was sooo cute!! :)

So that evening came and went without so much as a word spoken between us except that we were introduced to each other.
He was introduced to me as "Garrison" which was a nickname that was given to him by his friends since there were so many Chris's around.

The next evening my friends and I went to a get together at a friend's house.
I didn't realize it then, but Chris was there too.
My friends left me alone for a minute to go to the bathroom, and that's when Chris came up to me.
We ended up talking the whole night!
(Later I would find out how shy Chris really is, and how out of character it was for him to make the first move and approach me making it even more by chance!)

That night no numbers were exchanged or anything, so I figured it was a pretty slim chance that we'd bump into each other anymore.
Not to mention that I was going home for the weekend.
Campus really cleared out over the weekends, so if we were going to bump into each other, that would have been our best bet.
Not to mention I thought that he'd probably forget all about the little ol' Freshman that he'd met on Thursday by the time the weekend was over ;)

So I went home that weekend.
The weekend came and went, and of course, I didn't hear from him.
I got back to campus Sunday night, and when I was unpacking my things I got a phone call from a friend of mine. I didn't know it, but he also knew Chris.
He had been hanging out with Chris that night, and they got to talking and my friend realized that Chris was talking about me.
As it turns out, Chris had been trying unsuccessfully to get my information all weekend!
My friend gave Chris the phone, and we exchanged our numbers and Facebook information so we would know how to get in contact with each other.

After that night, there wasn't a day that went by that I didn't talk to or see Chris.
We started seeing each other, but we decided that we would just see how it went.
We didn't want to label ourselves as together too quickly since we didn't really know each other.
We gave each other the freedom to see other people if we wanted to, but neither one of us did :)

After about 3 weeks of seeing each other, lots of late night phone calls, dinner and movie dates, and spending time together, we finally made it official :)

This is the first picture we ever took together!
We weren't even dating yet here :)

After we had been dating for a few months, Chris asked me to go with him to his fraternity's formal.

Of course, as a Freshman, this was a HUGE deal to go to formal with my super cute Senior boyfriend ;)

It was the first big thing that I had gone with to him, and I was a little nervous to be introduced to all of his friends! I just felt so young being right out of high school.

Although I thought it was definitely a good sign that he was proud enough of me to take me to a big event and show me off :)

Our relationship got serious faster than most I would say.

We had only been dating a couple of months before he told me that he knew that I was the person he was going to marry.

In fact, he even told my parents!

Not sure how they felt about that at the time :)

Here are some pictures from the beginning of our relationship!

Side note:

How about how I'd forgotten that I was at one time skinny!

What happened?!

And how can I go back??!!

Anyway...

That's the story of our happy beginnings!

Be on the lookout for part 2 where I'll talk about when our relationship became long distance, and the struggles that came with it!