Greg and I met on April 7, 2012 while tailgating at Opening Weekend for the Texas Rangers. Greg recognized a couple friends from high school, Luke Abbett and Kevin Culwell, and came down to say hi! My best friend, Kay (Whatley) Froehlich, looked over at me and said "Paige... that guy right there... that's your next boyfriend." I laughed and rolled my eyes at her. I was not looking, and I did NOT go out with total strangers. Before we walked into the game, I stopped him and asked him to take a photo of our group... because I had zero game and it was the only thing I could come up with to get his attention.
After the game, our tailgating groups merged, and we continued to party while waiting for traffic to die down. Greg's group was ready to go and yelling at him to come on. All of a sudden, he looked straight at me from across the big circle our group was standing in and said, "I don't have time to beat around the bush... can I get your number?" SCORE. It worked! Or so I thought. Months later, Greg revealed that Kay had actually gone over to him and told him I thought he was cute... so, again, no game.
Come to find out, Greg & I had graduated high school together, but he transferred in Senior year, so we never met. However, he had classes with my best friend Chelsea Goreham, his little brother was best friends with Kay's little brother, he and my best friend, Travis Jones, spent their freshman year partying together at Texas A&M Commerce. We think that God knew what he was doing and brought us together at the right time. I was too much of a goody two shoes in high school for cool guy Greg!
After texting back and forth for a couple weeks, Greg won tickets in a basketball shooting contest at work for the Dallas Mavericks playoff game versus the Oklahoma Thunder. I HATED how awkward first dates were, so when Greg asked if I wanted to go, I was pumped! You mean we can just drink beer and cheer on our team? Count me in! It was amazing! Plus, we were coming off our high of the Mavs winning the championship in 2011 (remember that!).
As we were pulling up to the arena to park, we saw a sign and I said "Oh, P1 Parking Garage! For The Ticket!" Greg quickly asked with "You know what The Ticket is?" I explained that I was a huge P1 (fans of the best local Dallas sports radio station) and I had been listening to The Ticket since Travis interned for Norm Hitzges in college. As Greg tells it, it was in that moment he knew he loved me...
On August 20, 2014, while doing the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Greg got down on one knee and proposed! I was soaking wet and in shock! Of course, I said YES and the next day we booked a trip to Austin to look at wedding venues and start the planning! I was a Certified Wedding Planner at the time, so I was ready to get this party started.
For those of you that know us, you know that this is the part of the story that we would like to forget but without it, our relationship wouldn't be what it is today. We took a short break that December to pause and reevaluate. We were not in a good spot and we knew that before we said "I Do" we both needed to be in a better place. After about 3 months apart, we decided to start going to church together on Tuesday nights. We knew that if we were going to make this relationship work (and last) that we needed to start with God. From there we slowly started working through the issues that made us separate in the first place. We became better partners, and our relationship became stronger than ever.
Greg "re-proposed" on our 5 year anniversary at our favorite restaurant, Truluck's. This time felt so much different! We were older, more mature, our relationship was solid, and we were truly ready for forever.
We decided on Mexico and after MONTHS of research, we settled on Finest Playa Mujeres for June 1, 2018. Signed the contract with the resort; booked the room; booked the flights; printed, addressed, and stamped Save the Dates; and then BAM! God laughed at our plans, again. Instead, he blessed us with one of the best things that ever happened to us, our sweet baby girl, Halle Kaye Stahler (while we're here - it's HAL-ee, not HAY-lee). We were shocked, scared, and had no idea how much our life was going to change. Now, here we are, 3 years since we found out, and we have the funniest, silliest, more precious little girl that we are beyond thankful for.
Needless to say, wedding #2 was cancelled. If you hadn't got it already, now you're probably starting to understand the "Stahling" joke...
On July 9, 2017, we bought our first house together in Frisco, Texas to make room for our growing family. After months of searching, we finally found our little hidden gem with a kitchen that dreams are made of right on the golf course. One could argue that this this where Greg's love for golf grew ten-fold since he could walk right out the backyard gate to the green and hit a few practice shots before the next group tee's off!
On October 18, 2019, the missing piece to our family was born, Gregory Allen "Tripp" Stahler III. He's the cuddliest little boy with the sweetest smile! We still wake up every morning and look at each other a little confused trying to figure out what we did to deserve all of this.
Which has brought us to today. We're Done Stahling. We know it's a little unconventional, but we've been through so much these past 8+ years, that we want a day (ok, long weekend) to celebrate our love with our family and friends. We've chose each other, we brought two precious babies into this world, we bought a dreamy house, and now, completely out of order, we are ready to say "I Do".
We hope you can join us in Playa Mujeres to celebrate! We just happened to choose June 12, 2021. The 10 year anniversary of the Dallas Mavericks winning the championship. If anyone knows Dirk, please let him know he's invited to the wedding.