Kali McCroskey & Cameron Salazar

My husband and I met in September of 2014 on the first day of seventh grade. I remember walking in and seeing him smile and that’s all it took for me to be head over heels starstruck. Even at 14 years old, I knew he was the one for me. Unfortunately, it took him a whole year to come to the same realization. Boys, right? Ever since middle school, we’ve been the best of friends and have walked with each other through thick and thin. I mean, if we could survive our awkward middle school dating phase, we can do anything. It was such a gift to get to grow up with my future husband and to graduate middle school, high school and recently college together. We already have what feels like a lifetime of memories.

Because we’d been dating for almost seven years by the time we got engaged, Cameron knew the proposal would have to be something special. He tricked me into dressing up and going to Fellow’s Lake for a photo shoot. Next thing I knew, I was walking up to a beautiful setup of photos of us over the years, flowers from all the bouquets he’s gotten me since we started dating and our song playing in the distance. After he popped the question and a few happy tears later, our friends and family came running out of the trees to celebrate with us.

Once the wedding planning officially began, we knew we wanted everything to feel very intentional and to be focused on the love we’ve shared for so many years. That intentionality looked like having a wedding dress with sleeves my mom made and sewed on from scratch, creating a bouquet for the reception entryway that had one flower from every bouquet Cameron had ever gotten me, writing and reading our own vows in front of all the people we love, putting baby’s breath in my hair from the first set of flowers I ever got from him, designing each piece of wedding stationery myself and having a seating chart I painted with all our loved ones’ names on it in my handwriting. Our wedding day felt beautiful, magical and so much more peaceful than I could’ve ever hoped for. We ended the night just the two of us under the stars for a private last dance before our send-off. In the months since, I’ve been asked if I would go back and change anything about our day. Each time I reply with, “No, it was absolutely perfect.”