When Russell met Aubrey

As most of you probably know, Russell and I met in September in Paris, France, both students in the BYU fall study abroad program. Initially, neither of us planned on loving each other. Russ was determined to ignore the teasing from his family that he would find his future wife among the 20 girls on the study abroad. As for me, I was juggling all sorts of long-distance half-relationships back in the States.
But all is fair in love and war.

Russ and I got to be very good friends right from the very first week. We shared the same sense of humor and found each other hilarious. I enjoyed the time I spent with him and the conversations we had while strolling down the Champs-Élysées or climbing to the top of the Arc de Triomphe to get a view of the city at night.

It's interesting that we both fell in love with each other around the same time. On November 7, 2007, right before I was about to leave for Florence, Italy for the weekend, my life changed. Russ cornered me in the Louvre Museum, told me he had feelings for me, kissed me, and the rest is history.

We secretly dated each other for the last month in Paris, and then somehow I convinced him to move to Provo in January, where I attended winter semester and he stocked bananas full time at Maceys.

We got engaged on April 9 at the Roof Restaurant in Salt Lake City. We ate a lovely dinner with a great view of the temple. He danced with me and gave me the most gorgeous ring I had ever seen. I was dazed and confused and I tripped down the stairs at the restaurant. He helped me up and kissed me and tried not to laugh at me. It was a beautiful night.

I have found the most wonderful boy in the world and I can't wait to marry him. We have a really great story, and now we're in love.

And we'll always have Paris.