We are so excited to share the love story of Kelly & Phil! These two are such a joy and so fun to work with, and now call friends! Kelly & Phil not only share their last name now but also share in an exciting ministry at Herron High School Young Life in Indianapolis , IN. Their love for Jesus and sharing His love and compassion with others is at the center of their marriage! Before we get to the pictures here is a little about how their big day came about: (As told by Phil)

I spent a summer (2012) in Arizona working at a Young Life Camp. Before the summer I knew I wanted to marry Kelly. We had talked about getting married quite often, and often indirectly, but both knew we were hoping for it. After working in Arizona, I came back with full intentions to propose to Kelly before Christmas of 2012. I set up a time to meet with Kelly’s dad and talk with him about my plans and it went great. Kelly also had very little idea any of this was happening even though I know she was waiting for it. I ended up getting Kelly’s great grandmother’s old engagement ring and wedding band and about a couple weeks after getting the ring I hashed a plan to surprise Kelly to ask her to marry me.
Kelly was in Cincinnati for a Field Work Experience and living with a friend there. On the weekend of December 1, 2012 we were going to a concert (Andrew Peterson, our favorite artist) in Cincinnati. I had planned to come down a day early on Friday and propose to Kelly. After a LONG drive, I got to our friends apartment where Kelly was staying and waited for Kelly to get off of work for the day. I had a plan to take Kelly to a park, watch the sunset and ask her to marry me but as I’ve found often my plans d0 not work out at all.

Kelly got off of work a little late and we missed the sunset so when Kelly returned from work to our friend’s apartment, I surprised her outside telling her I came a day early to just be together before the concert and had coordinated it all with our friend. Kelly showed me around the apartment and I was paying very little attention because I had told myself that I was scrapping the old plan and just going to go inside and be ready to propose whenever it was right. After getting a little frustrated because I was paying no attention at all to Kelly, she sat on the couch and I asked her to stand up with me. Odd request on a normal night. Kelly was confused and as she stood with me I said, “Kelly, I’ve never done this before.” (Did I mention I didnt have much of a plan haha) At this Kelly thought I was joking about proposing to her and told me a couple times that it isnt funny and to stop because this isnt a good joke. Pushing through the confusion, I got down on my knee and pulled out the ring and said, “Kelly, will you marry me?” Without a single moment of hesitation Kelly said, “Of course!!” and grabbed the ring out of the box and put it on her finger herself!
We’ve continued to grow deeper in our love as we were engaged. It’s been so great to be in our Young Life community, serving together and supported and cared for in this stage. Our prayer as we enter marriage is that we will continue to grow deeper and deeper in love as we share this life together as one!