Alright, alright, alright, this is our Last Entry for our 2015 FREE Wedding Photography Giveaway. You can read all the way back to Andrew and Alina for a complete overview of all the sweet entries we've had this year.
We'll be announcing the winners on our Facebook page on Saturday, (Happy Valentines Day to us all), so LIKE our page to stay tuned.
Without further ado, Jane and Josh....
Our story starts on a big red school bus. Our matchmakers: two thirteen year old girls.
Josh and I met while we were both volunteering at an inner city children’s ministry called CityKidz in Hamilton, ON. The kids that we volunteer with are typical teenagers, hyper, hormone crazy, kids who love life and love to talk about who I am going to marry. So one Saturday in the fall of 2013, they decided that they would find a perfect suitor for me. At that time, Josh was driving the school bus we use to transport the kids to and from the program. My two best 13 year old buds were discussing how they were going to find a guy that was my age for me to marry. We, of course being on a school bus, did not have that many suitable options that were not under the age of ten. Then looking to the front of the bus, they saw Josh’s ever smiling face in the rearview mirror and they had met their match.
Immediately running to the front of the bus they told Josh to take me to McDonalds on a date. Mortified, I panicked as I had never met Josh – I had no idea what his relationship status was!
Josh graciously had a fun time with planning “a date” with the girls and they came back to sit with me, satisfied with their work.
I decided to try to normalize things by adding Josh on Facebook and after some brief messages we did go on our first date …. which went horribly. Josh thought nothing special of me and I was more focused on the fact that I had to be home to see my old university roommate after our date. Some how though, I thought it was still a good idea to keep talking to Josh; I saw that he really cared for others, he loved his family and was a very loyal friend. Despite the awkward start that we had, we have learned that we love serving others and planning adventures together. We have fallen in love while on road trips, camping, zip lining, skiing, snowboarding, travelling, spending time with family, and I think we have stayed home and watched a movie once in all of our dating history. You can usually find us trying to cram as much activity and socializing into one day as possible. My maid of honour (to be!) tells me that Josh and I do more things in one day than most people do in a week.
Our time together is fun, motivating, encouraging, thought provoking and engaging. We are so glad that we found each other. Our engagement was nothing short of a romantic surprise. Josh took me to the restaurant where we went on our first “real” date (where he asked me to be his girlfriend). After a wonderful dinner, we went on an adventure, to the Devil’s Punchbowl, which is a beautiful lookout over Hamilton. Josh had arranged ahead of time to have his friends set up candles, a rose bouquet and rose petals on the bench. We walked out to the bench, and then he asked me to marry him! After he put the ring on my finger, he hugged me and shouted “SHE SAID YES!!!” At which point, his friends lit off so many fireworks to celebrate. This whole evening was an illustration of Josh’s thoughtful nature and ability to carry out complex planning and details.
We are so excited to share our wedding day with our family and friends and have even found a church that can hold all of the kids and families that we know from CityKidz!
this is a photo that we took the night we got engaged - my roommate made us a chalk board card :) and we celebrated with an ice cream cake!
Quirky facts:
1.My mom’s first comment about Josh was, “Do you think that you two had the same orthodontist?” We both have big smiles that we love to share with the world.
2. We LOVE talking on the phone. In an age of texting, we are the anomaly. We on average call each other about 3 times a day.
3. Josh loves all things blue and German and Jane loves all things pink and Dutch. So close, but yet the source of so many disagreements.
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