Our Story
Depending on whom you talk to, the story of how the couple met—or at least how they remember it—is different.
Joe's Story
Sophomore year of high school, Joe was in Men’s choir and Shannon was in Select Women’s choir. The choir director chose a piece of music that required the two choirs to sing together. The choirs were not learning the music fast enough, which called for an early morning rehearsal.
With sleep in everyone’s eyes, both choirs showed up and started rehearsing the song. During the rehearsal the director did not feel like we were singing with enough passion so he made us pair up guy and girl. We had to hold hands with our partner and sing our lines to them (don’t worry, everyone was singing but it was still awkward). Well what do you know Shannon and Joe were paired up together. Both were thinking “Oh God, I sing horribly! This is so embarrassing.” But they both made it through the song, and honestly didn’t talk to each other for quite some time.
Shannon's Story
To no one’s surprise it took Shannon a long time to remember the choir rehearsal. In fact, Shannon has no set memory of when they truly met. Senior year of high school, Jessica, Shannon’s little sister, joined marching band as a little freshman. Joe instantly bonded with her and took her under his wing (explain a lot?).
Because he was around her so much and making jokes with her, Shannon started talking to Joe quite a lot. In fact from there they started facebooking, eventually texting, and finally talking to each other. They became fast friends, and Joe quickly became Shannon’s best friend.
On February 13th, 2010, the couple went on their first date (to see Avatar), shared their first kiss, and to literally everyone’s surprise, started a dating relationship.
The Engagement
On August 18th of 2013, I, Shannon, turned 21. The day started normal. Great Grandma, Aunt Anita, Grandma, and Grandpa all gathered at the Claus residence to celebrate the birthdays of both my sister and I. Around Lunch time Joe showed up dressed extremely nicely. My Mother came running into the house yelling “everyone outside, especially Shannon”.
I grinned and went outside to meet Joe at the end of the driveway. Joe started speaking saying “Happy birthday beautiful! I love you so much, more than you can imagine. You have made my life so much better, and you have made me so happy. You mean the world to me and I will not give you up. I cannot live without you; in fact I do not want to live without you. I want you to be my wife. (He gets down on one knee) Will you marry me?”
He pulled out this beautiful ring, and of course the answer was yes! We were able to celebrate with the family and also with friends later that night.
With that we look forward to seeing you all at our wedding June 20th! We are very excited to continue our relationship and see what God brings to us next. Please R.S.V.P. so we can look forward to seeing you!