Our love story...
Began when we were very young. Dillon and I fell in love for the first time when I was 12 & he was 13. He asked me to be his girlfriend for the first time on July 10, 2008. Some may wonder if kids can understand love at such a young age, but Dillon and I formed a bond that was beyond words. We went through a lot together at that time in life and ultimately went our separate ways. A few high school years past and neither one of us was able to completely shake our feelings for one another, so we gave our relationship another shot. I talked Dillon into going to prom. It was his senior prom, I was his date, and somehow this was the year I decided to wear a white prom dress. This time in our lives was nothing short of true bliss. However, despite what we wanted it still wasn’t our time. We chose to go our separate ways once again. I still remember sitting in the car with Dillon parked in front of the Neely house and I telling him “If this is meant to be then life will bring us back together one day when the time is right.”
Dillon graduated and began his career. The free spirit that I was roamed around trying to find out where I belonged. I ended up taking a job working on a cruise ship where I believed my untethered soul would thrive. And it did. Every 6 months I would come back home for a month and a half vacation and somehow every time Dillon and I would awkwardly end up in the same place at the same time… thanks to mutual friends. On one of these vacations in particular Dillon and I had reconnected via text message and chatted with each other quite a bit. Soon, it was time for me to go again. Expect this time Dillon asked me what time I was going to the airport. Thinking nothing of it, I told him… Then Dillon showed up at the airport. He told me he wanted to come to say goodbye. We stopped before I had to go through security and Dillon asked me if he could kiss me. I was a ball of every emotion at once, but I said yes. He kissed me, I walked away, and I didn’t say a word to him after that. In my defense, I had no idea what to do. Needless to say, another year or so went by with no communication between the two of us.
Eventually, I came home for yet another vacation: remember how I mentioned the mutual friends? Well, one of those friends talked Dillon into texting me to hang out while I was home. Dillon texted and asked if I would want to go on a hiking adventure to a waterfall swimming hole. I said yes, and I was excited but very nervous. We spent the day at Turtleback Falls, and in the coming weeks, we became inseparable. It’s safe to say that once again we had fallen back in love like we did when we were kids. Unfortunately, the weeks went by way too fast, and once again it was time for me to leave. We said our goodbyes and had no idea what the future held for us.
Another six months go by… and I am still head over heels for Dillon. I even snapchatted him checking to see if he had a girlfriend while I was gone. Thankfully he said no. For many reasons, but him being one of them (whether he believes it or not), I decided that I was not going to accept another contract on ships. I wanted to go home and start a life with roots. When I came home, of course, we reconnected once again, but Dillon was not going to give in easily. I worked long and hard to make him understand that he was what I wanted for good. He wanted the same and eventually, he asked me to be his girlfriend on July 10, 2017. If you paid attention, that’s the same day he asked me to be his girlfriend at the beginning of this story. Don’t ask me how he remembered that.
Obviously, the rest is history. But… if you’re curious a lot has happened since then. We moved in together, we have had many travel adventures, amazing times with family, a New Year’s Eve Disney World engagement, and we moved into our first home. Now it’s time for the next milestone of our story, our wedding. Our dream destination wedding. Dillon and I have always wanted to get married on a beach, we cannot believe this is becoming a reality, and we cannot believe you’re going to be there!
Thank you for being a part of our love story and joining us on one of the most important moments of our story yet! We can’t wait!