Amber & Brandon: 2018 Wedding at BRIK Venue in Fort Worth, TX

Amber and Brandon tied the knot at the Brik Venue in Fort Worth, TX, in November 2018. This short film captures their story.

"Amber and I met in our first days of class at the Texas Tech Whitacre College of Engineering, first introducing ourselves in the Student Union basement. Despite initially assuming Mark to be her boyfriend (he just never leaves anyone alone) it became clear in our classes that we had a common passion of adventure/travel and were quick in committing to the study abroad program in Seville, Spain. Funny enough, as the two of us travelled and became close platonic friends, we were colloquially known as the parents of the group and charged with looking out for our crew on our escapades. Though a great summer we unfortunately drifted apart as friends due to our degree/professional tracks, social circles, and a dash of disapproval from Amber’s actual boyfriend. It wasn’t until two years later that we actually had our first date partially disguised as catching up. The date (but not a date) went very well and showed promise for us until it was abruptly called short by a call from her roommate Jennifer that their apartment was broken into. In the subsequent dates that followed some mistakes were made and it became apparent that we had a little bit more maturing to do *cough* Brandon *cough* and we once again drifted apart. Our college careers ended on relatively neutral terms coexisting as ambassadors for the college with me graciously taking orders from Amber to give tours to students despite having a broken foot/back and having to crutch around the engineering key.

Almost a year after graduation while I was working in Kansas City and Amber in Midland, I had the brilliant idea to check if Amber would be going to recruit at the annual Job Fair. She wasn’t attending, but after a couple essay-style text messages back and forth about the year long silence and where our lives were headed I was driving down to say hello before the fair, and after it, and again when the flight back to KC got cancelled fortuitously (Amber still thinks I cancelled it). Not long after catching up I conveniently had planned to be in the New Mexico area for a ski trip and invited her and soon to be roommate Ashley to come along. Tragedy struck early on with an unfortunate injury on the slopes for Amber, but she prevented it from spoiling the trip and provided me numerous opportunities to be a gentleman. Fresh off of my many injuries and therapies, I was able to help coach her along in recovery and stay optimistic when setbacks occurred. This ultimately helped to strengthen our bond as we learned the adversity we could overcome even with the miles between us.

The distance from KC to Midland was approximately two flights, five hours of travel time (at best), and a significant obstacle to a young relationship, but we completed it together. It taught us patience for ourselves and one another, it made us cherish every opportunity we had together, and it provoked us to continue our passion of traveling to new places. Once we were totally injury free and racked up plenty of frequent flier miles we set out on every adventure our vacation days could afford from the west coast to the east. It wasn’t long after a couple domestic pursuits that our appetite for a foreign excursion grew, so we convinced Andy, Mark, and Emily to go with us to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. It was on this far from home trip, similar to their travel to Spain, that Brandon decided there was no better place to ask the boldly going woman of his dreams to join him on a lifetime of seeking the unknown. Though a fairly ill advised idea to bring a secret trinket (most importantly, uninsured trinket) on a perilous journey to the top and bottom of mountains rife with alpaca crossings, “gringo-killing” steps, and the most romantic cases of altitude sickness, it did make for quite the perfect moment when the sun came out and I finally took to a knee at Machu Picchu."