Love really does bloom everywhere and anytime. Katie and Oliver met in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in the middle of a war. Katie tells this story so well, that I am writing her version here. But it truly shows, just like one of the bridesmaids said, if you put a group of really awesome people in the most terrible place in the world, that place really isn’t so bad anymore and anything can happen. So to be surrounded by all of these amazing people, now in this beautiful place that have obviously supported and loved these two for years, was truly emotional and heart warming. Hope you all love these photos as much as I do!!! Sorry if it is slight photo overload. I am just so in love!!! Also, while you look through these, you should play this song.

I was in Kandahar, Afghanistan and already almost 10 months into my deployment and working in my spare time as a coach at the post CrossFit gym. At this point in the deployment I was tired, grumpy, ready to get home, and didn’t want to make new friends. However, Oliver started coming to my class one day wearing super short shorts and didn’t say a word to anyone. He smashed the workout beating everyone by a lot and then left. He did this for a few days, however, I cant forget to mention his horrible calf high white socks. Anyways, this caught my attention that this quiet UK soldier kept destroying everyone in my class and yet he dressed like a crazy person. After lots of failed attempts to talk, I realized that this was going no where. Later that week we advertised the Canadian Gyms closing competition where we encouraged all of our guys to go compete. Oliver showed up with his friend and actually started chatting to me and I was absolutely shocked that he could talk! Still, I could only make out about half of what he was saying but just nodded like I understood him…..

Anyways, after the competition, I was looking for him and he was no where to be found. Turns out he rowed so hard to try to impress me that he rowed himself sick and was to embarrassed to talk to me afterwards. However, at that point the ice was broken and we followed up with a coffee on the board walk, in the middle of December, when it was freezing, and Oliver had his big thick issued coat and of course our Army wanted us to freeze and not give us jackets, so there I was, drinking coffee (which I NEVER drank then) and freezing my butt off trying to make sense of this thick Belfast accent. We continued to hang out until it was time for me to leave which fortunately worked out great as my end of tour leave and his mid tour leave was at the same time and we went skiing in France.

THIS, is a great story. It was our first time meeting each other out of a combat zone and where I could actually be a girl with normal clothes, my hair down, and makeup on. I was a nervous wreck on my way to see him thinking what if he hates me. By the way, I’m from Florida. I didn’t see snow fall until I was 19. So lets just say my snowboarding skills are a bit……sub par, where as Oliver thinks of himself as a professional skier. This was off to a great start…….but after plenty of falls and go pro footage of him laughing uncontrollably at me whenever I fell, there was no denying that we were perfect together and the rest is history 🙂

Only Katie would have her bridesmaids re-pierce her ears on the day of her wedding.

Remember Lizzy?? Crazy muscles! She is the cousin of the bride!!

This is the fort where Oliver proposed. Seemed fitting to go back for a few shots that day.