Our Story {the Short Version}

With our 1 year anniversary coming up, I thought I would share our story (taken from our wedding website and written by Matt) :)

How we survived for over 3 years!

The Rundown 
No, I didn't actually run her down...but I would have! Actually, since we met in Columbia, South Carolina, it is more accurate to say that we met one mildy warm day in December of 2006. It was the Christmas season, a time filled with family, friends, gifts, and in this case the meeting of Matthew and Jamie.

We met at a Christmas party over break. Games were played, cider was served, carols were sung, and we met each other for the first time, unconscious to the fact that we would be spending the rest of our lives together. We exchanged phone numbers, with promises of an activity after christmas where everyone could get back together again to hang out.

We called each other increasingly over break, hung out a few times, and then, abruptly, Christmas break was over. Back to reality. We both went our separate ways, one to Paris, France to study business for a semester, and the other to Lexington, Kentucky to finish their Senior Year.

The night we became "official" {2007}

We kept in touch more often than we thought we would, with phone bills reaching into the hundreds, mail being sent back and forth, and e-mails arriving weekly. Just keeping in touch. That's all. As May rolled around and both of us came back to South Carolina, we met up a few times, and continued "talking" until a hot sticky weekend in October...the weekend of the University of South Carolina vs. University of Kentucky football game. Who would have ever guessed that the Gamecocks beating the Wildcats would have resulted in us becoming an "official" couple?

Matt cheering on my Kentucky Wildcats!! 

My first Pepin family vacation {2008}

Cheering on Matt's South Carolina Gamecocks 

We dated long distance from October 2007 until February 2010 and in April we became engaged.... 

 (see Engagement story for juicy details)!!