When Stacey told me that she was hungover, makeup-less, and wearing a hair net when Nick first introduced himself to her years ago, I knew I was going to love these two.

They were both students at Purdue, and Stacey had been working at the dining court for a few years. Nick was on the football team and she had frequently fed and cleaned up after the team, so their paths had indirectly crossed many times before they finally “met”. On the day when it finally happened, Stacey was going about a normal morning of work, donning a look many of us get after when we’re in college – no makeup, a sports bra instead of a regular one, and subtle signs of a hangover. Since she was working, she was also rocking her hair net when one of the football players did a double take of her as she walked by while he was eating breakfast. From there he came up to shake her hand and introduce himself, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Nick and Stacey have now been together for over six years, and between buying a house, taking care of their dog, planning a wedding, and working full-time in jobs they both enjoy, life looks a lot different than it did when they were two college kids falling in love. But when you really step back and look beyond the conflicting schedules and the real life stuff that adulthood tends to throw at us, you see this person who you’ve not only watched mature and grow and learn throughout the years, but you also realize how fortunate you are to be doing the very same thing right alongside them.