Jade and Phil met online two years ago – Jade was in her last year of nursing school at ISU and Phil was wrapping up his final year of PT school at Bradley. Phil made the drive from Peoria to Normal on a weeknight for their first date, and they went to dinner and played a round of mini golf. After that they made those drives down 74 to see each other week after week, getting to know each other and seeing movies, going to hockey games, and cooking together. They eventually finished their programs and now both work at OSF St. Francis in Peoria, so their days together look a lot different than the ones spent driving back and forth – they now grab lunch together during their breaks at work, and spend their weekends fishing and disc golfing and working on Phil’s new house.
Having grown up in the same small town as Jade, I’ve known her since she was a little girl – that said, I haven’t seen her in years, so their engagement session was my first time hanging out with her as an adult. They’re both smart and ambitious and make each other laugh and know what they want, and they make a great team and have a way of seeming wise beyond their years. They reached out to me right after getting engaged at the end of May (and as all of you are quite aware of, there aren’t a whole lot of people getting engaged during the pandemic and *intentionally planning a wedding in 2020). But these two did, and they did it well – they sprang into action and planned a wedding in three months, and next weekend, I get to photograph them marrying each other. Life is wild right now but love is still so big and thriving and good, and these two are such a great reminder of that.