Our Story

During the summer of 2016, I had the opportunity to join a small cohort of students and start taking classes at Clemson before the regular student body arrived on campus. It was a group of 40 students who attended classes, lived in the same dorm rooms, and generally explored college life all together. One night, while studying in the common room, the cute brown haired girl from downstairs mentioned she was driving to a coffee shop to grab a cup of tea, and asked if anyone wanted to join.

I JUMPED at the opportunity and the next thing I knew, she was driving me to the coffee shop while I attempted to flirt with her. On the ride back, I was able to muster up the courage to ask for her phone number.

Today, I consider this my first date with Grace Ellen (even though she doesn’t remember it). We would go on to become good friends and hang out periodically during those early college years.

Unfortunately as life goes, people have a way of drifting in and out of each other’s lives. By the time we reached our final semester of college, it had been a couple of years since we had last spoken or seen each other. That is until one fateful evening, during March of 2020, when I happened to bump into her in downtown Clemson. I, nervously, asked if she remembered me (of course she did), and we spent a few minutes catching up on the years past before returning to our respective friend groups. The following Monday, COVID shut down the country. Restaurants closed, most students went home, and everything seemed to slow down for us.

During the following weeks, our relationship rekindled. We would call each other every night and would often spend the days just driving around listening to music because there wasn’t anything else to do. During these early days of our relationship, Grace became my best friend and I became her impromptu wedding date.

Around August of that year, I referred to Grace Ellen as ”my girlfriend”. She in return said “how can I be your girlfriend if you’ve never asked me?”. So on August 25, 2020, I asked Grace Ellen to be my girlfriend and our relationship officially began.

The next 4 years of dating Grace Ellen were the most fun and exciting years of my life. We were broke and seemingly never settled in one place, but we always made time to see one another every chance we had, especially during Grace Ellen’s stint in Nashville. We spent a year in what you’d call a “long distance relationship”, but with how often I was in Nashville, I’m not sure that’s an appropriate term for what we were doing. Truthfully, It wasn’t always easy. The long drives sucked, and Nashville is an expensive town. But everything just seemed right when we were together so we powered through. It goes without saying, but I was over the moon when she decided to move back to Greenville.

I knew I wanted to marry Grace Ellen forever ago, but when she came back to Greenville, it dawned on me that I better get my act together. So I started saving up for a ring. It took longer than I would have liked, but fortunately our wonderful families were so supportive and NEVER once asked me what was taking so long. After a while, I had enough set aside that I could start shopping. If you know Grace Ellen, you’ll also know that she will tell you EXACTLY what she wants so this part was actually pretty easy. Finally on October 18th, 2024, I took her on a trip to “visit her sister” in Washington D.C. and mustered up the courage to propose at the George Peabody Library. Despite my nervousness, the trip was amazing and I finally locked down my perfect woman. (Also, a big shout out to Mary Claire for helping me coordinate. I couldn’t ask for a better sister!)

At the time of our wedding, we will have been together for five years. During this time, we’ve grown tremendously as individuals and also as a couple. This has been the most joy-filled and exciting time of my life, and every second is thanks to Grace Ellen ... and it’s only getting better with each passing day. I’ll often think back to our freshman year, and wish I had made a move sooner. But I’m happy with the first chapter so far. I can’t wait to read the rest.

I love you.

-wsg