I will be married one week from now. We met exactly one year before our wedding, and here's how:
Johnny Zarbock: Avid skier, adventurer,
Disneyworld vacationer
Emily Wood: Pie baker, vintage clothes
wearer, staycationer
How did these two single and attractive,
yet different individuals come together? It happened when Johnny selected
Denver on a whim for his accounting firm recruiting city of choice. Johnny had
no interest in working in public accounting, but nevertheless flew from Utah to
Denver on June 16, 2011 for a two-day recruiting event.
After pinning on his nametag and making
professional small talk with firm employees and fellow recruits, Johnny looked
up to see a girl wearing a handmade skirt and one of her Grandma’s cardigans come
into the room. “Hey, there’s actually a cute girl here,” thought Johnny. “Wait,
I’ve seen her before. Yes, she’s the one cute girl in the accounting program at
BYU. What an excellent chance to talk to her!”
Emily drove from her family’s home in
Denver the morning of the 16th, nervous about meeting a potential
employer and co-workers, not thinking much about her co-recruits. When she
walked into the conference room and saw the hot guy from accounting with
amazing eyes and sexy dimples, she realized that she might be networking for
more than just an internship.
Emily Wood and Johnny Zarbock spent the
rest of the recruiting weekend interviewing, teambuilding, and professionally
flirting with each other. Before leaving the last event, Emily made sure to say
goodbye to Johnny, but in a totally casual way. The result was a quick goodbye
to Johnny and the other BYU recruit in the form of “goodbye fellow BYU
constituents.”
Emily’s parting words and their small
conversations over the course of the conference stayed with Emily and Johnny
for the next two months until Fall semester started and they made it back to
campus. In the hopes of seeing Emily again, Johnny continued signing up for Denver
recruiting events, and in the hopes of seeing Johnny, Emily continued to
attend.
As the semester started, Emily and Johnny
enjoyed more encounters and conversations that finally led up to Johnny asking
her out. That date led to many others and a wonderful semester of progressively
serious dating and the eventual decision that married is how they wanted to
be.
