Anthony and I met in 2013 when I had just moved back to Colorado from Washington. Ive always loved dancing and started going to the Grizzly rose regularly. One night, fate found us both on the dance floor. As Anthony watched me line dance the night away, he made his way closer to me. As I was in my own world of dancing bliss, an older gentleman I’ve never seen before, walked over to me and began yelling at me and calling me names, completely unprovoked and uncalled for. Anthony heard this exchange, and like a true knight in shining armor, threatened to knock the guy out for talking to a pretty girl that way. The gentleman, clearly intimidated by my dance floor savior, realized this was an unfortunate case of mistaken identity (he thought I was the ex wife of a friend of his, already out and on the prowl), apologized and offered to buy us both drinks, and our story officially began.


I wish I could say the rest was history, but our story is just too special to end there.


We remained friends for a few years, and in 2015 decided it was time to start dating. Our relationship was doomed from the start because unbeknownst to Anthony, I was in the throws of a dark drug addiction which would eventually take my job, my car, my friends, my family, my faith, and eventually him. And the day our relationship ended, my drug addiction took the last piece of light in my life, and I was left in perputual darkness, riding shotgun with the devil, ready to let it take my life as well.


By the grace of God, and with the love of my family and new found friends in recovery, I fought and screamed and clawed and crawled my way back to life. I started my journey living my new life minute by minute, and eventually day by day, and before I knew it from one month to the next, and then years had gone by and I had found the light again. During these days, Anthony was never far from my mind or my heart. He would message me at each sober milestone, reminding me to be proud of what I had done. Every year I was blown away he remembered. But like clock work on April 19th every year, I was reminded of the love that was still there, this love that spanned beyond hurt and pain and betrayal and heartbreak. And it wasnt until recently that I realized the word for that kind of love was “unconditional.”


God knew our story wasnt done because years later on a random night out at the Grizzly Rose, I saw him and it was like he never left. He hugged me, and I instantly knew I didn’t want to go another day without him, ever again. Over the following months he reintroduced me to his family who welcomed me with open arms. He washed away all my fears around the hurt he may still feel over the things I had done during the day my drug addiction turned me into something I didnt recognize. He reminded me of the power of true forgiveness and its ability to mend a damaged spirit. And maybe most importantly, he helped me find my way back to faith and back to God.


On March 17th of this year on a beautiful beach in Maui, he got down on one knee and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him.


We look at love as the butterflies in our stomach, the way our heart beats out of our chest, the way we smile when we see their face, and while all those things are love, they arent the things that show the parts of love that are unwavering and unconditional in nature. Ive experienced those life changing pieces of love and they are found in forgiveness of the most painful wrongs, and in the compromise of the worst fights, and in the sacrifice even when we have nothing left to give. I dont think theres any other man in the world who could love me so big, to show me the hardest parts of love.


So from that day on the dance floor in 2013 when a random country boy became my knight in shining armor, to our wedding day when we finally get to celebrate this beautiful journey we’ve had back to each other, we are honored to have you here, and we are grateful you have been a part of our story.