Our Love Story

Well if you ask me it all started back in 2008. I was 17 and at a church dance when I see this super cute boy walk in the doors. I turned to all my friends and told them all I was going to ask him to dance because he was so cute. So when it came to a ladies choices I went and asked this cute boy to dance, he kindly said yes. Once the conversation got started he told me he was a chaperone, I was so embarrassed. I told him thank you for the dance and I thought to myself that was the end of that cute boy. But obviously the big man upstairs had a bigger, much better plan! :)

It really all started when I sat next to Ashley, Brad’s best friend’s wife, the first week of my history class. {You get all that?} Ashley asked me what church I went to. When I told her that I was a Mormon, Ashley asked if I knew who Brad Schmidt was. Of course I knew who Brad was. He was the boy all the girls had crushes on because he is practically perfect in every way {Seriously, just call him Mr. Poppins}. So I replied “yes I know him, I’ve seen him around church a few times but we haven’t ever talked. He is so cute though.” Ashley then said that she was going to set us up. A few weeks later I got a message on Facebook from Brad. We started messaging back and forth and eventually we swapped numbers. Then things really got rolling. We would text all day, every day. 

The first weekend in October Brad came home for General Conference weekend. As soon as he got home from the airport he came over to my house. We ended up going to Kroger to buy cranberry juice and then came back and watched Zoolander. We spent the night talking and snuggling. We lost track of time when all of a sudden I heard my dad moving around upstairs. I knew he got up at 4 to leave the house by 5 for work.  We looked at the clock and it was 4 in the morning. So Brad sprinted out of the house and headed home. I sat there wondering if I was going to see him again or if we would ever hang out again.

The next day I got a text from him asking if I would want to hangout with him and Adam and Ashley. So after school I drove over to his house and from there we went to meet up with Adam and Ashley. Ashley had planned a girls night with some of the girls from her work so Adam and Brad sat at separate table than Ashley and I. Then we went back to their house and watched Despicable Me. Once it was over we headed back to Brad’s house. That night we shared our first kiss. I headed home hoping I would hear from him again. Saturday went by and I didn’t hear much from him. I thought I had totally ruined it. He was leaving on Sunday and I didn’t know if I would ever see him again.

Sunday afternoon I got a text from Brad saying he was coming over. We ended up going to Lake Horton. We sat under a tree and talked. The only thing I can remember is when he turned to me and said “I think we should continue to date other people.” I immediately thought that he didn’t like me, although I wasn’t trying to rush into a relationship, I didn’t want that weekend just to be another fling that didn’t mean anything to him. All this time he had been telling me not to fall too fast and that is the opposite of what I did. I fell fast and I fell hard.

A couple weeks passed, we continued to text every day. As time went on I continued to fall even harder for him.  I eventually got to go visit Seattle. We spent the day in downtown Seattle where we went to Pike’s Market and to this cute little park. Brad had set up a reservation to eat at the Space Needle that same night. Our first date was to a place that I had always wanted to go to and I got to cross it off my bucket list. It was the best first date I have ever been on.  I ended up going to visit Brad every other weekend. In my head things were starting to get serious.

I ended up spending my Thanksgiving Break with Brad in Washington. I flew out on a Tuesday and we went to lunch then he dropped me off at the hotel and he went back to work. I had actually talked to Ashley before I came out about what was on my mind. It had been a few months since we had started talking and I wanted to know where I stood. I didn’t want to just be a weekend fling anymore; I wanted an actual relationship with Brad. I guess the same things were going on in his head because that day he asked me to be his girlfriend.

People ask me when I knew I loved him and I can tell you exactly when. On that trip we went to church with his brother and his family. That morning was kind of crazy, when you have 4 adults trying to get ready for church that tends to happen. I ended up having to do my hair in the hallway using a tiny mirror. Brad sat there and held the mirror and talked to me the whole entire time, he even got the spots that I missed. Just that simple act made me realize that I loved this man and I wanted it to be me and him forever.  

Over Christmas break Brad was able to come home for almost 2 weeks. The night he got in was our 1 month anniversary. On that night he told me he loved me, and I told him I loved him right back. I knew it was real because neither of us wanted to rush anything, and everything just felt so right. Every day during that break I fell more and more in love with him. Seeing him interact with not only his family but mine as well made him even more attractive. I was spoiled with being able to see him every day for 12 days.

Then it was back to reality, back to the days where I only got to see him every other weekend. In January I came out the weekend before his birthday. That weekend was a big one for us. We got a couch and a ring. Things were about to get real serious.

For the next time I came out Brad told me to bring a nice dress. He had planned something but I had no idea what. When he got home from work that Friday I was sitting on the couch, he came over to the couch and got down on his knee, my heart started fluttering. My only thought was is this really happening? Of course he had to tease me a little, and handed me a ring that he had gotten his mom when he was younger. He told me to go get ready for our hot date so I did. We got in the car and he pulled the gps over to his side so I wouldn’t know where we were going. I was told we had 2 stops. First stop was the Space Needle. We got our picture taken and then I turned to look around, it’s called an observation deck for something. Brad then turns me around and gets on his knee again, holds out a box and says “Brett Emma Newberry would you marry me and travel the world with me?” Of course I start tearing up and say yes and he tells me to open the box. As I’m opening it, I find this little suitcase, I look at him and ask if this is another joke, he laughs and tells me it’s the real thing. So I open the little suitcase and find the ring that we had picked out. He took it and slid it on my finger. There we were, newly engaged, excited to start our life together, with the prettiest view of Seattle all around us. It was the perfect proposal.{You can read more about it here}

When I got to the airport to go home these siblings around my age turned and started talking to me. They said it was their first time to Seattle so I asked them if they went to any tourist attractions. They said that on Friday night they went to the Space Needle.  I said oh I was there too. They said that they saw some girl get proposed to and it was the sweetest thing they had ever seen. Then the boy said the girl kind of looked like me. They said that they took a picture and had sent it to their parents. They showed me the picture they sent and it was Brad and I. It was a crazy experience and totally makes our story even better.

We were sealed for time and all eternity in the Birmingham, Alabama LDS temple on July 19, 2012. Go ahead and follow to see where life takes us!