Ashlyn & Ryan: From Grade School to Growing a Family

As their officiant, I had the honor of telling Ashlyn and Ryan’s love story during their wedding ceremony—and now I get to share it here with you. From grade school classmates to a couple preparing for parenthood, their story is one of steady love, quiet resilience, and learning how to grow together. These two have weathered life’s challenges with heart and humor, and it was a joy to help tell their story on one of the biggest days of their lives.

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Ashlyn and Ryan have known each other since grade school, but their love story didn’t start until shortly after graduating high school in East Texas. 

Ryan remembers seeing Ashlyn at a graduation event they’d both attended where something about her intrigued him and made him feel like he needed to get to know her better. Ashlyn would say she thought he was cute but didn’t take him seriously at first. 

Lucky for both, Ryan is persistent!

They had their first date at a Mexican restaurant. Everything went well enough, and Ashlyn thought that was the end of their day, but no. He overheard her talking about plans to go to the lake and invited himself along with her and her friends.

Now if you know Ashlyn, you know she can be a little headstrong and some might say she’s got a few walls up. That never stopped Ryan. He stayed consistent with her, remained patient and open with his feelings, reassured her, and cared for her when things got difficult. She really loved how sweet and thoughtful he was.

Ashlyn was living with her aunt at the time and was having Ryan over to visit. After a while Ryan was “falling asleep" and not getting back home for the night like he might've planned. They both told me that things just felt like they clicked together, and they couldn’t imagine not being together. So, naturally, he ended up moving in with them. 

Ashlyn told me about a time she got sick and how Ryan was so attentive and nurturing with her. She said that living together taught her that she needed to be able to be vulnerable with him if they were going to have a future together.

If you can believe it, Ashlyn was the first to say, “I love you”! Ryan was shocked (too) because it wasn’t like her to be so forward with her feelings. He was also relieved because he felt the same way but was afraid of pushing her away. 

Ashlyn told me when he's with her, she feels like she’s safe at home.

Ryan was excited and nervous about his proposal. He told me he didn’t know when or how to do it, but knowing that she’s more of a private person, he decided to propose while they were spending time alone in their backyard.

To his surprise she was like “finally!” – everyone had been asking her when they were going to get married.

They’ve endured a lot together between college classes, family losses, financial stresses, being young and learning more about themselves and each other as they’ve grown up together.

When I asked them what they love about each other now, Ryan says he loves Ashlyn’s motherly instincts and how her loud laugh makes him smile.

She loves how his patience and understanding has grown even more as they’ve grown older and wiser together. She also says she likes to make fun of his compulsive phone case purchases and how much money he spends on his truck.

They’re both looking forward to being parents. Their little bean is due March 11th, which is also my birthday, just saying, it’s a pretty cool day to be born.

When I asked them, what marriage means to each of them Ryan said that for him, marriage means staying patient, not getting angry, and always making Ashlyn laugh. For Ashlyn, marriage means never giving up on each other, always talking to figure things out, and she agrees that “keeping her happy” is a good answer.

Ryan and Ashlyn have known each other a very long time. They were just children when they met and they’ve grown so, so much over the years, both individually and as a couple. Now, they’ll expand their family with the birth of their first child where they’ll be faced with new and exciting, and often exhausting and frustrating, challenges that they’ll work together to overcome. Their story continues now, as they are joined together today as husband and wife.