Lauren & Josh’s story, told by Lauren:

It was Memorial day weekend 2015 when Josh and Lauren met at the Eglin Sand and Spurs Horse Stables. I had recently brought my horse back to the AFB stables from the trainer, so that evening I was doing my barn chores at the quarantine barn, which is right by the water. There was a gentleman wandering around the edge of the water whom I had never seen before, but it’s not unusual for people to fish that area. After about ten minutes, the man approached me and began talking to me. He asked me about my horse and started telling me about his son who had also recently moved his horse, a mustang, to the barn. A couple minutes into our conversation the son (aka Josh) walked up and joined us. He didn’t say a whole lot, just kind of nodded when I said I heard he had a mustang. That was pretty much the end of our first meeting! They went back to fishing and left me alone. I definitely thought he was cute, but I didn’t pay him much thought, thinking he was probably already married (which is the norm for men at our barn).

I never actually caught Josh’s name, so for a while he was known as the Mustang Guy. We would say hi to each other in passing and it never occurred to me how much he was going out of his way just to walk by my barn. His barn is a straight shot to the arena, but he was making a wide, much longer loop around the barn. One of the days he did his walk-by, he said hello and I didn’t acknowledge him. I had one of the worst weeks of my life (including quitting my job, putting my childhood dog to sleep, going to the emergency room – it was a rough one!). Realizing he probably thought I was a jerk, I went down to the field to apologize to him and told him why I was upset. The next day when I showed up to the barn there was a bag of chocolates with a sweet note that said “Hopefully a little good for a week of bad.”

Nothing much happened for a couple weeks after this and I started wondering if he was just being really nice to a new friend, or if there were some deeper feelings there. Trying to spark a conversation, I thanked him for the chocolates and we talked for a while in the field, getting to know each other as we grazed our horses.

On July 11, 2015 we had our “accidental” first date. We were both at the barn as some storms knocked the power out in Niceville, so my parents called and told me to wait a little while before coming home. I had finished up and had nothing to do and saw Josh over at the community wash rack behind my barn with his horse. I’m normally quite shy about approaching people (especially guys, to be honest), but I felt this nudge from God like I was supposed to go over and talk with him. I walked over and told him I had nothing to do, and he asked if I was hungry. We were both in our dirty barn clothes and soaking wet from the rain, but we went and sat at a nearby Mexican restaurant for three hours and talked and talked.

Apparently at some point I lost cell service, because at 9pm I got a flood of texts, missed calls, and voicemails from my worried parents who couldn’t get ahold of me. I told him we needed to go and I drove home both embarrassed and slightly panicked. He asked if he could make it up to me by asking me out on a real date. I immediately said yes and on July 17 we had our true first date, followed by many more!

HOW SWEET ARE THEY? Small town boy meets small town girl. Throw some horses in the mix, and you’ve got yourself a love story!

In all honesty though, the time we had to spend with these two was so much fun. The way Josh looks and talks to his bride-to-be…so precious. Lauren is head-over-heels for him, and its so apparent in the way that she looks at him. We had the pleasure of being a part of a session that was REAL life. Don’t get us wrong, the beaches here are AMAZING and SO beautiful, but this was that much more special because it’s the place their eyes locked for the first time.

So here’s to their future together!

XOXO,

Mandi & Haylee