Bridget: We met at the original Garner Senior High School sometime between ’96 and ’98

Codie: Garner Senior High School in Garner, North Carolina.

Bridget: Really not sure HOW we met. We had mutual friends in school but did not have any classes together.

Codie: Neither of us can actually remember the moment or time that we officially met. It had to be sometime in 1997 or 1998. We also have no idea how or why we met.

Bridget: My earliest memory (that I can remember :P) is the memorial march we had to remember Courtney Smith in 1998. I know Codie was there and that’s the earliest memory that I can remember.

Codie: There was a dance at Garner High during our senior year. I remember dancing with Bridget at the dance and later going to Applebee’s in Garner. It was Corey Bryant (shout out to Corey), Bridget and myself at Applebee’s.

Bridget: We just did. hahaha it was organic.

Codie: I think we first started to see each other back in 2003. It was really something that just happened with no plans. We used to hangout a lot and go to the basketball courts at Timber Drive Elementary. From there we just started spending more time together.

Bridget: Hmmmm, if I had to guess our first date was hanging out and talking somewhere. I don’t remember! That was 22 YEARS AGO!!!

Codie: I really don’t remember our first date.

Bridget: After reconnecting with Codie in late 2018, I realized that what I had been searching for and desiring in a husband was him. He was always respectful, caring, and someone whom I could share my deeper thoughts and feelings. Not that we agreed on everything but we had a good friendship that we could build on.

Codie: We could sit and talk for hours about anything. Our communication was everything to me. Bridget was also consistently the same person.

Bridget: We’ve been dating long distance for some time and that proves to be a challenge now and again. We live 2 hours from each other so we would meet in the middle or hang out in each other’s cities.

Codie: I’d say the two biggest challenges has been our views on faith and living with some distance between us. The way we overcame our faith challenges is through very real communication and accepting each others differences. The distance challenges are overcome with communication and committing to spending time together.

Bridget: We got engaged on 06NOV2019

Codie: We got engaged on November 6, 2019 at my home.

Bridget: We were at Codie’s house and he asked me to take a seat and read through a book that had a collage of pictures and This Is Us on the front cover. I honestly didn’t really know what was going on but we had been talking about marriage for awhile and Codie would ask me if I still wanted to marry him from time to time. So I went with it and at the end of the photo book was a picture of this beautiful ring. He then pulls a red box out of the drawer and commences to get on one knee and asks me to marry him. I was nervous, happy, and excited and said yes!

Codie: I gave Bridget a photo book that had photos throughout our 20 year journey as friends and dating. The cover of the photo album had a collage of pics we’ve taken together and it was themed “This Is US”, after the TV show. Inside the photo album were about 100 pages with detailed captions for each image. I told her “You have to read every page of the book!” The last page of the book had a picture of her engagement ring and on the next page was a Post It note that said “Marry Codie”. From there I got down one knee with the ring in hand and ask her to marry me.

Bridget: I want to marry Codie because he is someone who is honest yet kind, fun, introspective, loves God, caring of others, love his family, will call me out, and encourages and supports me.

Codie: Bridget has always been there for me in ways that no one else has. She’s consistently sacrificed for our relationship. We also have a solid foundation of friendship that was very important to me. I needed to be in a relationship where I could be completely honest about everything. I feel like we have that.

Bridget: My mother screamed and laughed when she found out we were engaged. My dad got up from the table and danced and my step-mom Nena cried happy tears.

Codie: Some were like “it’s about time!”, some said “I knew it was going to happen!”, while mostly everyone was excited and pleased.

Bridget: The premarital counseling was really helpful in providing verbiage and tools to work through conflict. We took an assessment and walked through a 10 page report together with a facilitator over 10 weeks or so.

Codie: Pre-marital counseling was very real. We discussed all sides of married life (family histories, responsibilities, conflict resolution, expectations, money, sex, etc). Our counselor often told us that most people she worked with didn’t have a relationship like ours. She also told us that most people who go through this determine they weren’t fit for marriage and we had great marriage momentum. I highly recommend it to anyone who is seriously dating and is thinking about getting married. I don’t believe you need to be engaged to do it.