Schroeder Wedding

Please click through to read our love story!

We met in the Fall of 2015 at Iowa State. I was hosting a philanthropy event for my sorority and Josh was representing the Department of Defense through Army ROTC. His job was to challenge participants to do push-ups to show support. Next thing I know, I’m being challenged by this man in uniform to see how many push-ups I thought I could do. Interesting way to meet to say the least. It turned out that we had several mutual friends so we all ended up grilling out later that same night. The rest is history.

 - Kaylen 

Fast forward to April of 2019. I had planned a special date night for the two of us, but little did Kaylen know that while we were on our date, my sister, Hope, would be decorating the house in roses and candle light for the big question. What I didn’t plan on, however, was Hope needing an additional 15 minutes to finish setting up when we were on our way home. I brilliantly came up with the plan to stall at the local 7-Eleven to find a Redbox movie – romantic, I know. As we finally made our way back home, we talked about life now, our past, and our future plans. Then, as we walked into the house we had just bought together, I explained to her that I couldn’t wait to create memories with her in this house and asked her if she would spend the rest of her life with me.

- Joshua

Joshua and I knew his upcoming deployment was just around the corner. After the proposal, we knew that we didn’t want to wait until he got back to get married, so we decided to tie the knot in a private ceremony on August 10th of last year in a beautiful garden in downtown McKinney. With each passing day, we strive to put God at the center of our relationship and I could not be more blessed to be married to my best friend.

 - Kaylen

Kaylen and I have an unbreakable bond that has only been strengthened during this deployment. We have continued to develop and grow even though we are miles apart. Believe it or not, we have been apart longer than we have been together during our marriage because of this deployment. November 14 won’t just be the ‘party.’ To us, it symbolizes the beginning of the rest of our life. We truly feel like we will be getting married all over again and we cannot wait to finally share this day with the people who we love most.

 - Joshua