What if I told you that my sweet husband and I only dated for 7 months before we got married? You’d probably think I was crazy! But I love our love story. I love that it’s unique. I love that it was a whirlwind. Today I’m going to share the beginning of our story, and how I went from being so burdened by the unpleasantness of dating to finding the love of my life within months. Feel free to click away if you’re not into sappiness!!
It all started two years ago at a friend’s wedding. I was shooting Jon & Eve’s wedding in Dacusville, and I pulled up into a big field where the wedding ceremony was going to take place… only there were people setting up and nobody that I was actually supposed to be taking photographs of at the moment. Side note here. I am directionally challenged. I have to use my GPS to get anywhere. It’s bad! Thankfully, I’m more detailed now when I ask brides on where they want me to meet them. 🙂 Anyways, I walked over to the people setting up, and a guy came over to greet me. I asked him if he knew where I could find the bride. He said, “well… I think they’re getting ready at a house down the road…” So I asked if he could tell me where it was, but to be honest, he wasn’t very sure himself. “Ummm… I think you go down past the bridge and then you’ll see the driveway up on the left.” What bridge? I didn’t know… So I walked back to my car and planned on finding this bridge. I wanted to be sure I got to the right place, so I turned back around and went up to him again and asked him to clarify. I still got a vague answer. I went with my gut and eventually found where the girls were getting ready. I felt even more dumb when I realized it was a gorgeous venue I have shot at before!
Fast forward two years. At this point, I’d been single for over 2 years. To be honest, I hated it. I’ve always felt like I was made to get married and be a wife and a mom, but I hadn’t had luck with guys in the past. How do you meet people after college? I didn’t know. I thought about joining community groups or hanging out at coffee shops. I even tried online dating (I know, I know). I was pretty desperate, but I tried to keep my cool. I just hated going on dates. I hated meeting people and having to start from scratch. I hated having to wonder every second what they were thinking about you, if you were making the right move, if you were interesting enough, etc. etc. I hated getting my hopes up and then being let down. I was terrified of relationships. I’d already gone through two breakups, and I wasn’t about to let another one happen. It was all exhausting, really. Eventually I gave up. I decided I wasn’t going to meet anyone, and it was time to move on with my life, so I began making plans to move out of my parents house and get some roommates and prepare for a life of singleness. I began to get excited about it all. Being a real life adult, decorating a house, having my own space to have friends over. And I had found two roommates that were going to be a blast to live with! Things were looking good.
Around October of 2016 I began texting my childhood piano teacher about music-related things and we decided to meet for coffee to catch up. She is the sweetest old lady you will ever meet! She loves Jesus with a passion and talks to him as if she’s referring to her lifelong friend, because I think He is that to her. She’s kind, generous, and amazing. I’ve always looked up to her and wanted to emulate her in my life. We were chatting about coffee and she says to me, “Oh, Christi!!! I have this amazing idea for a community music event!!! We are going to have 100 singers!!! 40 instrumentalists!!! God is going to work mightily!!! Would you like to be a part of it?” She’s never short on enthusiasm. I agreed to join as a chorister. Another side note: we ended up having about 30 singers and 12 instrumentalists, but it really was amazing!! We had a full house! I don’t know how she does it!
Rehearsals started at the end of October. I showed up and another group of young people showed up at the same time. One guy about my age, who was particularly attractive, and two younger adults. We walked in together but didn’t say a word. Finally we found our seats in the choir loft and I decided I would introduce myself. I said, “Hey! I’m Christi Dean! Nice to meet you!” The younger guy said to me, “Yeah. We know! We are good friends with Eve and we met you at Jon and Eve’s wedding! Remember when you asked for directions? That was him!” and he pointed to the one I thought was particularly attractive. Bet you guessed by now who it was. It was Matt, who less than one year from that day at choir rehearsal is now my husband.
I found out later that Matt and two of his younger siblings (Josiah and Esther, the ones in the choir) were taking piano and voice from Mrs. Davies, my childhood piano teacher. Their recital came around on December 9, and Mrs. Davies asked me if I would play the prelude for the recital. I agreed, and was so excited when I found out that Matt would be there. I was secretly hoping that we would be able to chat some afterwards. Jon & Eve decided to also show up! After the recital we all agreed to go to Cook Out, because, why not. Eve decided to ride with me. She got into my car, and the first thing she says is, “So, I think you should become a Johnson…”
And I’ll save you the rest for another time… 🙂
