Our Story

This is when we were at Tyler's cousin's
wedding when we first started dating. 

So before I post about the wedding day and all of those events, I want to go in order and post our story of how we first met! I'm trying hard to not jump the gun so here goes nothing: Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there was a place called Rexburg, Idaho. It was magical with it's snowy mountains and tender winds.... Just kidding! We really did meet in Rexburg, Idaho, but it definitely doesn't have tender winds. We met there in the January during the winter semester. That is when Rexburg is most freezing and icy. Tyler was in my Family Home Evening group and he was also my home teacher. It took a while for us to actually start dating. I kind of crushed on him for a while and then one day I saw his twin brother, Travis, and his wife, Cami, out on campus. They were holding hands and I politely waved at Travis (thinking it was Tyler, since I didn't know about his twin brother) just to say hi (even though in my head I was wondering what the heck was he doing holding another girls hand) and he didn't even acknowledge me. Needless to say, I felt like an idiot and I was irritated at Tyler for flirting with me all the time and leading me on. Not long after that though I was around Tyler at FHE and I overheard him mentioning his twin brother and sister-in-law. After that I was into him again. On our first date we went rock climbing and out for ice cream. I remember thinking that he was fun but things probably won't work out because he was too cheap. Ha! But, I kept dating him just because he was fun to be around. Slowly like turned into love, and I guess he felt the same way because before you know it we were exclusively dating. His parents flew us out to California so I could get to know them better, and while we were there, Tyler took me on a date to the beach and told me he loved me on the pier. The thing that really makes it a "Rifka-ish" experience though is that before he said that, I got bitten or stung by some sort of sea creature, so I had a nice swollen foot that I was limping on to the pier with. I refused to say anything though because I knew what was coming, and by gosh, if there's a time to sacrifice the little for the big, that was it! So, fast forward, Tyler was graduating at the end of spring semester, and with him being from California and I being from Arkansas, we both knew we wouldn't be in the same vicinity again. After discussing, he and I decided that we didn't really want to cut things off... but we weren't ready for engagement, so his solution was that he was going to move to Arkansas and see how things went from there. So he came to my family reunion, met everyone (they all loved him to death) and ended up lining up a job and housing while he was here, and then two weeks later he moved here to Arkansas! A few months after that he proposed, and then a few months after that we had our dream wedding! (That post is on the way.) The proposal story is kind of long and funny but pictures will just have to do for now! :)

And yes, that is my Mom in the background, crying. She's a sweetie. 

Thanks for reading!

With love,