Reading Your Love Stories

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by sarah elrod

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Madeline & Wess Love Story

We have been together for a total of 6 years and just celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary on February 8th. We met when I was 19 and Wess was 25, but neither of us knew that at the time.

I love our love story, for being a girl obsessed with country love songs
and daydreaming of my cowboy to take me away, i definitely got a country love song story….


I don’t count the first time we actually met as much but it does set the tone for the rest of our story…. I had just finished my first semester of college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and came home for my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary party.

Ranch hand meets farmer’s granddaughter

Wess had been working for my grandpa as a ranch hand for a few months at this time and was invited to attend the party. I had heard his name a few times leading up to the party but had never set eyes on this master cowboy whom my grandfather had spoken highly of. I had a boyfriend at the time of the party and wasn’t husband hunting by any means, but my grandfather insisted that I meet this mystery cowboy named Wesston.

Little did I know my grandfather had been talking me up to mess as well. The time came for us to meet, and let me tell you it was highly anticlimactic! We said hello, snuck a drink at the open bar and went our separate ways….

What makes our love story like a country song is when I came home from college for the summer. FYI if you haven’t figured it out yet I like to say our love story is like the song Farmer’s (Grand)daughter…. Anyways my boyfriend and I split up shortly after the anniversary party and I was soaking up the single life.

The weekend I came home from college was my family’s bi-annual cattle drive just a few miles from where west and I currently live. West had been helping my grandpa out all week leading up to the big move and my grandpa had been talking me up again. My grandpa denied ever setting us up until the day he died.

Getting to know each other

West and I spent the weekend riding horses, getting to know each other and whole lot of flirting. After the long first day of moving cattle 11 miles into National Forest grazing land we went back to the ranch to have dinner with my family. Let me give you a little backstory on my family… I am the oldest of 9 grandchildren and was expected to set an excellent example for my younger cousins and siblings, that being said underage drinking was not allowed and as i mentioned before we didn’t know each others’ ages.

We both thought we were 23 or 24… back to the story… once we got to the ranch and washed the horses and ourselves we settled down for snacks and barbecuing. I was chatting with my grandparents and west walks over to me and asks me if i’d like a beer.

I immediately panic thinking, “oh great this cute hard working cowboy doesn’t know how old i am and I certainly can’t take it in front of my grandparents” so I swallow and shyly say, “Oh I’m good thanks” and he quickly replies, “why not” and I say “Because I’m not old enough”. The look on his face is one I’ll never forget, sheer disappointment.

The age difference

He looks down and then back me with a little bit of hope and asks me “how old ARE you?’ My reply eased his mind a little. The night went on smoothly and apparently our age difference didn’t scare him off because he asked for my number at the end of the night. The following weeks we talked a lot and got to know each other better, still a little hesitant about the age difference. We tell each other now that we both knew God brought us together through a very special person and answered both of our prayers about our future spouse.

Wess told me after he said “I love you” for the first time that he knew the day of the cattle drive that we were going to get married one day. I knew it too. We had several hurdles throughout our relationship that forced me to trust that this was the man God placed in my life and to fully trust in His plan for me. It was the best decision I ever made.

Justine & Clayton Love Story

Our story isn’t anything from a romantic novel or movie but man I can’t picture it happening any other way..so here it goes!! 
My name is Justine and my now husbands name is Clayton for reference throughout this. I had been in many long term relationships leading up to the 2019 year, in January of 2019 I left a mentally, emotionally and physically abusing relationship finally after a year. I decided to give myself some time to heal and truly love myself again.

June of 2019 rolled around and like how all millennials meet these days, a name I had never noticed before liked one of my Instagram photos. I clicked on him – dairy farmer – ooof sucker for those cute cows. I followed him back and then of course he popped up on my Snapchat the next day to add, so why not. We live in a chain of small towns so he lived in the next town over about 30 minutes. I asked some of my college buddy’s about him, and they all said good things. 

Full circle moment

Well rewind back to March, I was at a bar in said small town and had asked my friend Sam who this one guy was standing down by everyone else because I thought he was kinda cute, I had no interest but just was curious..IT WAS CLAYTON! Now fast forward to us snapping everyday and me realizing it was him. July rolled around and we finally both had time to meet up at, that’s right folks, our county fair we went to the tractor pulls the first night, truck pulls the following, and never spent a day apart since..absolutely no joke.


I came and helped on the farm every night after working at my own job, and he drove 30 minutes after milking cows to spend every night next to me in bed. 3 months into our relationship I found out I was pregnant (long story short, I was never supposed to have a chance at carrying a child in my docs words, and if I did happen to get pregnant, the chance of losing it was high) I had just turned 22, just met Clayton 3 months ago, I had just graduated college, was still living at home..there was a lot that just didn’t seem like this was the right time.

God has a plan

Well God had a plan, and man he put me in the right place for it. We kept the baby, both of us deciding to raise the baby together. I knew Clayton was the one after just a month of being together, I had no doubts he was about to be the best father there was. He drove every night for almost a whole year to my house, through snow storms, getting up at 3am to leave and go milk cows, he never once said he couldn’t make it. True love right there. He would kiss me before he left each morning, always saying I love you never knowing I was awake the whole time.
 In April 2020 we moved into our new house together, in June 2020 we welcomed our beautiful baby girl, Kinslee Jo into the world. I’ve never loved someone so much, and then to see him become a father to that little girl only made it grow. He proposed in August using our sweet little girl, we got married in August of 2021 and now our due with our second baby in May of 2022. The lord has blessed us more than we could ever imagine

Laurel Dummer Love Story

My boyfriend and I first met when we were kids in elementary school competing against each other in 4-H events. It wasn’t until the county fair of my Freshman Year (2010) did we realize our “feelings” for each other. On September 21st, 2010, I got a voicemail asking to be his girlfriend. We lived on opposite ends of the county from each other and went to different high schools. Long distance is never easy, especially at a young age with no drivers license. So we ended up breaking up and calling things off. 

Reconnecting


Every fair throughout high school we would reconnect and try things again, but end up breaking up because of the distance. We were both moving on with our lives and seeing other people. Fair of 2017, (see the trend), we saw each other and instantly could feel the connection but we were with other people. He was about to be a Dad in December and had plans to get married. I was devastated. Constantly thinking about what I could’ve done differently. He was my “one that got away”… the “Right Person, Wrong Time”
But God works in mysterious ways…. 


Last year (August 2021), I was busy with our county Livestock Show and Auction at the fair. Trying to get the auction order in line, I received a TikTok notification… It was a message from him! Every emotion hit me at once. The questions came to me flooding my brain. “He’s married and has a family… Why is he texting me? Off TikTok, is he being deceitful towards his wife?” I replied and found out he had a divorce and finally felt like he could text me without feeling like he was betraying his now ex-wife. So once again, I was at the fair and we reconnected.

Meant to be together

We both don’t understand why our paths keep crossing or how we always find our way back to each other… The only answer I can come up with is God knew. God knew him and I were meant to be together, but I feel he also knew we needed to mature on our own before we could make this work. 
We are now together and couldn’t be happier!! I literally feel like I’m living my own Hallmark Movie. And his two little boys stole my heart faster than I ever thought possible. 
Side note to go along with the trend… He says we have to get married in the show ring at the fair or it wouldn’t be right lol. 
Thank you, Sarah, for letting me share my Western Hallmark Movie 🙂 

Sierra Felkins Love Story

So our beginning isn’t very interesting. We met on bumble ya know the old fashioned way these days but our first date was the best first date I’ve ever had. I hate traditional dates like meeting for coffee so we met in a Raleys parking lot so we could drive into the lake area together . This man thought I was crazy. But he went with it, so we drove around our local lake. We sat on the beach and Watched a storm roll in and sure enough it rained on us so We sat in his 4Runner listening to the rain and Ever since then we have been inseparable. To this day our favorite thing to do together is sit and watch the rain. We have gone through a lot together but I couldn’t be more proud to call him my Best Friend. 

Jodi & Jeremy Love Story

So mines short but sweet. I knew Jodi back in high school, but back then I was WAY more introverted and shy then I am now. I thought she was absolutely gorgeous but said MAYBE 4 words to her our entire high school career haha. She even loves to tell a story- Jodi and Akexa(her best friend) came to my house one time to hang out. I think my buddy had a crush on Alexa and was trying to ask her out. I don’t remember honestly. Remember the 4 words I said to her in high school? Two of them were that day. That’s it! I want to reiterate, I was crazy CRAZY shy back then.!!!

Fast forward to 2010, we’re now 19/20. We reconnect through mutual friends and start to hang out. One night I walked her out to her car when she was leaving to go home from my apartment and our first kiss just kind of happened…

You know those scenes in love stories where there’s a music montage and fireworks during a first kiss? That was our first kiss. Absolute frickin MAGIC. I’ve been head over heels since I was a teenager and married the woman of my dreams after all :)))

Morgan’s Love Story

I met my nerdy prince charming on Bumble, and our love has blossomed into my happily ever after. Being the perpetually single and fiercely independent woman I was, I didn’t think much would come of downloading the app. Boy, was I wrong.

The premise of this modern dating platform is that once you match with someone, the woman has 24 hours to initiate a conversation. Despite the girl power the app purported to support, I found my inbox full of many “Kyle’s” and “Chad’s” who weren’t so shy with their creepy messages.

It wasn’t long before I grew tired of initiating conversations with men who were just looking for a hookup, and had a long line of untouched matches I didn’t intend on doing anything about. But one particular 23 year with warm brown eyes made himself stand out from the crowd.

As I mentioned earlier, once you match, the woman had 24 hours to send the first message in order to keep the match going, but the guy also has the option to extend that match another 24 hours if he really wants to talk to you. The catch is that he can only do this with one match per day, or something like that, so he has to save it for those extra special gals he’s really interested in.

The notification

I had just gotten home from work when I saw the notification: “Someone really wants to meet you! Your match has been extended.” My curiosity peaked, I opened his profile. He was tall, into nerdy things like I was, and had a dog. He had also just gotten out of the Marines, something which gave me a bit of hesitancy.

I had already dated a military guy before without success, and this particular branch was associated with the stereotypical loud, brazen, and womanizing men I wanted nothing to do with. But I decided to give him a chance. I sent him a message along the lines of “Hey there! Sorry you had to extend me. *insert winky face emoji*.” I really wasn’t expecting much from the conversion but he replied almost instantly. “Hi there! I thought you seemed like a really down-to-earth person, and I was just wondering if we could start talking.”

My heart beat a just a little bit faster. This guy was either a very smooth talker, or he genuinely wanted to get to know me, something with made me smile like a big idiot. I messaged back, “what do you want to know?” He said, “So you like animals? Tell me about your rescue cat.” And the conversation never stopped. After several days of back and forth we decided to meet up. It turned out that he had just started classes at the local community college, and I was taking a few to kill time (aka deffer my student loans) before starting grad school the following semester.

The first meet up

We decided to meet up during our break from class, outside at the picnic table near the water fountain. I was nervous, one because I’ve never been that great at the whole dating thing, and two I was skeptical about if this guy really was genuine. He didn’t have many pictures on his profile, and they weren’t the best.

So though he seemed like he could be kinda cute I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I’m not a shallow person, so I wasn’t too worried – but boy was I surprised. The man who greeted me was incredibly handsome, in a down to earth and wholesome kind of way. But he was also painfully shy. Conversation that had been so easy and natural over text suddenly became…well, awkward. And he wouldn’t even look me in the eyes!

I walked away from that first meeting feeling butterflies, but also confusion. Was he just nervous? Was he not interested? Was I over thinking? These were the questions that kept circling in my head the next several times we met up. He began to come out of his shell more with every interaction, but things just didn’t seem romantic between us. I knew I liked him, but I had no idea how he felt about me.

Just friends? Or something more?

For all I knew, he just wanted to be friends, because he never expressed an inkling of attraction or interest towards me. The only thing that made me think maybe we could he something more was the sheer amount of time he wanted to spend with me. As many of you ladies know, most guys are the “play it cool” types. They want to see you once or twice a week in the beginning.

The don’t want to seem to eager to be in your presence. Well, not him. He always wanted to do something, go somewhere, eat together. But infuriatingly he never made a move! I was so frustrated I decided just to put myself out of my own misery and I kissed him.

I knew that, one way or another, I’d find out how he felt about me. We were in the middle of a Star Wars marathon at his house, and we’d spent all day at an awkward yet close distance from each other on the couch. It took me about two whole movies to build up the courage, moving just a little bit closer and a little bit closer, and finally he turned to look at me and I gave him the gentlest, most shy peck on the lips imaginable.

Seeing Fireworks

I was not expecting the sparks that flew, or the light bulb that went off in his head. Everything he had been holding back came full force, and in that moment I finally knew just how much I meant to him when he grabbed my face and kissed me again. He layer told me that he had been so reserved because he wanted me to be absolutely comfortable with him.

We spent the next few months spending every hour of the day that we weren’t at work or sleeping together. We talked about our future, made plans, fell in love and built our life together all in one short summer. It seemed crazy to the outside world, but we both just knew.

After only three months of “dating” (we were so much more than that) he asked me to marry him. I said: “Seriously? You’re not joking right?” Then a huge “yes!” We have been married going on three years, and have built a wonderful life together full of wonderful memories and lots of fur babies. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect modern fairytale. 

Kaila & Brandon Love Story

Oooooo this is gonna be fun

Let’s go back to April of 2018. I am 19, Brandon is 22.

He was working at Anytime Fitness & I was working at Beach Hit Deli right across the parking lot. He came in for a sandwich, I had just clocked off & was about to head out with a friend that was there waiting for me. I quickly said oh no I’m taking this man’s order, ran up to the front & too his order, made his sandwich & walked it out to him. A whole lot of flirting was going on during all of that, it’s so long ago I don’t remember what. But I do remember as he walked out he was halfway out the door & I said “have a good night” & he said “you too, I’ll be seeing you around” with a wink. I just about died

I’ve never been the super forward type with men, so I didn’t ask for his number…

He leaves & my friend was like what the heck kaila you need to go get his number & I was like no no no it’s okay. She then proceeded to run outside & scream at him

“SHE WANTS YOUR NUMBER” so he screamed it to her & she memorized it, ran back inside & gave it to me!

I texted him & said hey it’s Kaila

He responded I’m sorry you have the wrong number

& I was like oh no we must have switched the numbers!! He was joking. It was him.

Rest is history


Resources

Other Episodes You Might Enjoy:

012: Q+A with my Fiancé Tyler

08: My Wedding Planning Journey

050: Ask Sarah Anything

howdy!

I'm Sarah Elrod

The Podcast

Rural Lifestyle

Personal

Business

I'm a Cowgirl turned serial entrepreneur.
I'm a horse trainer, western wedding photographer, business coach and ranch wife.
I help women in the western industry grow thriving businesses from rural America.
When I am not strategizing new marketing tactics, you will find me riding my horses, cuddling my cattle dog, or kissing my hot husband.
There is also a good chance I am buying way too many outfits from western boutiques.

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