One Month Countdown: Our Story

So, in celebration of our one month until the wedding mark, I'm going to share our story with all of you (all of you who probably already know it, or watched it all happen...but oh well)!

Once upon a time, a girl told a friend that she'd go see his documentary screening at Samford -

- actually, let's back up a couple of years...

Once upon a time a girl went to freshman orientation at Samford University in the summer of 2007. All of the new kids got to stay overnight in the dorms and the orientation leaders put together a fun night for everyone. Part of this fun night was a DJ and karaoke. There happen to be a guy who was going into his senior year at Samford and he was in charge of the sound and music. The girl saw him at the beginning of the night, but as the night went on, she felt like she was seeing him more and more...and he got more and more silly. At one point he came right up to her and starting dancing like a crazy person. She thought to herself, "What a weird dude...fun...but strange." The next day she told her parents that the DJ guy was really odd, and that he danced by her for part of the evening (She didn't realize he was a student, so that made it seem kind of odd. But let's be honest - she told her parents because she was kind of flattered). Five and a half years later, the sound guy and the flattered girl are getting married!

...now we're getting ahead of ourselves, let's go back to the documentary screening -

So this girl, we'll call her Jessica, went to see a documentary screening for her friend. She was running late (kind of on purpose because she wasn't sure if she'd know anyone else there), and as she was walking across the quad, she saw a guy that she knew was mutual friend go into the screening room, we'll call him Jason. Jessica decided that she'd just slip in the back. When she entered the room, she saw that Jason had done the same thing. Boldly, she asked if she could sit with him. He said, "Sure, but can you sit over here {he motioned to the other side of him}? I have a friend meeting me." Jessica was sure it was a girl, maybe even a girlfriend, and this was about to get super awkward. Sure enough, it wasn't a girl...it was Jason's friend, we'll call him Kyle.

This was the documentary that started it all!

After the screening, Jason and Jessica talked for a little while. It was the first week of May 2010, and finals were fast approaching for those who were still in college {SIDENOTE: This whole time, Jessica thought Jason was a senior - but really he just worked at Samford doing freelance jobs and that's why she saw him there sometimes. She almost asked him if he was excited about graduation, but thankfully she didn't - that would have been embarrassing.} That night, a local church was hosting its annual Pancake Study Break, and Jason asked Jessica if she was going. She said, "Yes, it's actually my hall activity for this month," (she was an RA) and Jason said he'd see her there.

They saw each other at the study break, but just waved from a distance. Jessica's 21st birthday was later that week and her friend who had the screening, we'll call him Taylor, said that he was coming to her birthday dinner and was going to bring Jason. When she found this out, Jessica's stomach did a little somersault, but she didn't know why. As it turns out, Jason didn't make it to the birthday dinner - he decided to play basketball with some friends instead (it's okay he redeems himself later on in the story).

Jessica's 21st Birthday Dinner

After Jessica's birthday, she "friend requested" Jason on Facebook. They did a little Facebook "chatting", and some flirting on each others "walls". One night, while they were "chatting", there was a bit of a lull in the conversation and Jessica wasn't ready to stop talking. So, she told Jason her computer battery was acting strange (he worked at the Apple store). He told her to download some diagnostic thing, but he said that he'd make her a Genius Bar appointment the next day when he got to work - "If you give me your phone number, I can just text you the times that are available when I get there," he said. So, Jessica gave Jason her phone number.

After that, the two began texting a lot. Jessica was studying for finals, and she quickly realized that Jason had been out of school for a couple of years (she realized it without embarrassing herself, thankfully). She liked to study at Barnes and Noble at the Summit, and Jason came to meet her there after work a time or two. Over the next week or so, they became really good friends.

The week of finals, Jessica began to realize that she kind of liked Jason - probably as more than a friend - and he maybe liked her too. But, she was about to go back to Destin for the summer, and liking someone who lived in Birmingham would make things complicated; so they just continued to be friends.

Jessica realized right off the bat that Jason was an incredible guy. He did things like help her move out of her dorm room (even though she hadn't asked him to), and other little things that people don't usually volunteer to do (he always offered to drive, just little things like that).

Soon, the day came when it was time for Jessica to go home for the summer. Jason was sure that their friendship would end, or at least lessen, but it didn't! They continued to text throughout the day, even though they were five hours away and both working. The friendship seemed pretty resilient.

Jessica had a wedding to attend in Birmingham over Memorial Day weekend. She decided to come up a few days before the wedding to visit her friends that were staying in Birmingham over the summer. Naturally, this included Jason, and he caught on to that pretty fast. A few days before she arrived in Birmingham, he told her that his friend Kyle was playing in a show downtown and he'd love for Jessica to go with him.

Jessica arrived in Birmingham and spent the first evening with her friend, we'll call her MK. MK was going out of town the next day though, so Jessica was able to make plans with Jason. So, they spent the day together just going around and running errands. Remember Jessica's computer battery that she said was messed up to keep the conversation going? Well, she'd kept canceling the Genius Bar appointments that Jason had made her because she knew nothing was wrong with it. When she came up for the wedding, Jason decided that they could go together to get her battery looked at. Not so surprisingly, the Genius Bar dude told her nothing was wrong with it - go figure...

That night was the show that Kyle was playing in. Jessica went back to MK's house to change and say goodbye to MK. Then, without knowing it, Jason and Jessica began their first date, which included dinner at Rojo, walking around Morris Ave. in the rain, going to see Kyle play at Matthews Bar & Grill, and hanging out with friends at IHOP after the show.

Jessica and Jason were able to one more date (they had established it as a date by this point) in before she had to go home for the rest of the summer. It was the most perfect date Jessica had ever been on - and Jason was pretty happy with it too. The next morning, Jessica headed back to Destin. Unfortunately, their fear came true later on that week, and their friendship started to fizzle out a little bit because of the distance. They both agreed that they really enjoyed each other, but it wasn't  wise timing to start a relationship long distance.

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In August, Jessica returned to Birmingham for her senior year. Jessica was hopeful that she and Jason would be able to rekindle their friendship, even if they never went on another date. Thankfully, they ended up being around each other quite a bit because Jason was doing a lot of work at Samford and Jessica was on campus three weeks before classes started for RA training. They also had a lot of the same friends, and they went to the same church.

One night after school began, Jason called Jessica and asked her if she wanted to go with him to shoot a video for a friend who was about to release a new album and Jason was making a video for him to promote it. We'll call this friend Bobby. So of course, Jessica wanted to go. They had a great time just laughing and joking around together, and it seemed like their friendship was going to be able to pick up right where it had left off. They hung out with together with their group of friends a couple of nights in a row after that.

Then, Labor Day weekend came and Jessica was taking some of her girl friends home with her for a beach trip. Jason texted her the whole time that she was in Destin, and secretly, she liked that a lot. She thought that maybe her "more than friends" feelings were coming back, but she wasn't sure yet. When she got back from Destin on Labor Day, she was planning on having dinner with Taylor because she'd covered for him at work (they were both RAs) and he owed her dinner. As she was waiting for Taylor to come out to her car, she saw Jason drive by, park, and start walking toward them. He went to dinner with them as well! After dinner (at IHOP), Taylor had other plans, so Jason and Jessica decided to continue hanging out.

Then the hung out the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and they've basically been hanging out ever since.

Jason took Jessica on a couple of dates that were very "them". One was a cupcake date in the afternoon to Urban Standard - cupcakes and coffee are two of Jessica's favorite things. They also went to dinner a couple of times - and a movie or two. On September 22, 2010 Jason took Jessica on a special date. He blindfolded her and took her to Davenport's pizza because it's square (she'd told him that she liked square pizza - like the kind from elementary school). Then he blindfolded her again, and he took her to a movie. After the movie, she was blindfolded again and he took her to Sonic (according to Jason, a boy and a girl have to be a couple before they can go there at night together - that's the classic Samford after-date place to go). Before Jessica could take off the blindfold, Jason took her phone, and wrote this:

Then he said, "Okay, you can look now," and she did, and she said, "Yes! I'll be your girlfriend!" Then he handed her pink roses and they became "Facebook Official".

Exactly two years later, on September 22, 2012 (one month from today), Jessica will meet Jason at the alter, and they will vow to love each other forever, as husband and wife.

This may be the end of this story for now, but it's just the beginning for the {almost} Morales'!

{to find out more about the upcoming Sansom/Morales Wedding, make hotel reservations, look at their registries, get directions, and more, go to their wedding website}