The path to I do

Feature
By: Missy Talkington

When they met she was fifteen years old and he was the older boy in school who was sixteen and had his license. From their first date he had won her over and they felt like they were meant to be together. At only eighteen years old he put a ring on her finger. High school sweethearts was exactly what they seemed to be, but at such a young age there were many things against them.

He was the boy who was rough around the edges and she was the girl who had strict parents and he was her first boyfriend. She fell in love with him and agreed to marry him. Wedding plans were in full throttle, the dress was picked out, the invitations were out, presents were bought, and only weeks before the wedding it all came crashing down. It finally hit her that she was about to marry her first boyfriend. "I felt like I was missing out on something else that was out there. I knew that I was in love with him but I feared that I did not give life or anyone else a chance before making the huge decision of marriage" the bride to be, Tammy Ward said. The wedding was off and the bride to be was back home living with all of her younger siblings in her parent's house.

It only took about six months, though, until she realized that she had made the biggest mistake of her life. Ward said, "I was searching and searching for something that was missing and I finally realized the person who was missing from making my life complete was the one that I had walked away from." The two got back together and another six months later their was a ring on that finger again. The bride finally walked down the aisle at age 20 to her groom age 21. The high school sweethearts, my sister and brother-in-law, are still happily married eleven years later and have four beautiful children.