Met on Mutual: Stephanie & Cody

Around this time last year, I think it was early June, I was living in Rexburg attending BYUI. I had been on Mutual off and on for over a year, and met lots of guys through there. Honestly, most of them ended up being jerks. By this time, I had the app but I wasn’t very engaged in it. I mostly just used it when I was bored. I also had a really close group of friends that I spent a lot of time with and I was finally in a place where I felt happy being single and didn’t care to pursue anyone.

Enter Cody. I was bored one night and scrolling through boys and I remember thinking he was cute so I swiped up on him. Soon after, Cody messaged me, and he seemed nice enough. He had just gotten home from his mission and was still a little awkward talking to girls. We talked here and there and eventually exchanged numbers and snapchat info. What was really out of character for me at that time is that I didn’t really respond to Cody much. I’m usually really attentive to people, even though texting, but I was just kind of doing my own thing I guess. He didn’t give up on me though, and after a few weeks I realized how hard he was trying to be my friend and that he seemed pretty normal, so I decided to give him a chance.

I went home to Washington after the semester ended for the 7 week break and Cody and I were talking nonstop. We started FaceTiming each other every night and talking on the phone, aside from always texting and sending each other SnapChats. I was definitely a bit guarded, and Cody wanted to jump right into a relationship but I was much more hesitant.

Cody was living in his hometown still, a super small farm town called Tridell, about 25 miles outside of Vernal, UT. We lived about 15 hours away from each other and being that far apart was hard. Neither of us really had a lot of money at all, but as they say, the stars aligned for us.

Cody has a twin brother who returned from his mission in August. Cody’s grandparents drove up to UT to welcome him home. They just happened to live in Boardman, OR which is only about 2 hours from my home. We arranged for Cody to drive home with them to Boardman, and then I would drive there and pick him up. I even found a super cheap ticket for him to fly back to Salt Lake. No one in either of our families knew that we hadn’t actually met before, except my 16 year old sister who I confided in. She thought I was crazy, and I felt crazy, but it also felt right.

The two weeks we spent together in WA were wonderful. Nothing was awkward, and we fit together just right. He got along with my family well, and by the time he went back home, we had decided to get engaged.

Cody had been accepted to BYUI for the winter/spring track but he would live there in the fall and work while we planned the wedding. The weekend before school began, I met Cody and his two brothers in Provo, and then we drove to Tridell. I knew he already had the ring and I was excited but also a bit nervous. Meeting his family was comforting, and his hometown was so different from mine but felt like home already. That evening, we drove to Vernal. We got to the temple and I thought we would get out there, but it was closed. Subtly, he drove us to the giant pink dinosaur statue on Main Street in Vernal. (Backstory: My grandpa had taken my mom there when she was younger, and she had joked with us and said we should get engaged there. I laughed but said “NO!”) We walked up to the dinosaur and we laughed at the irony. As we stood underneath the statue, he placed his camera case on the ground and turned around to open it. Before I knew it, he swiveled around on one knee. He looked terrified! He asked me to marry him, and I said yes. It was quite simple and understated, but that’s how we both wanted it.

We got married in the Portland, Oregon LDS temple on December 22, 2017. It was a great day, but things have only gotten better since then. We live in a tiny, tiny apartment just north of Rexburg with our two cats. Things aren’t easy, but they are worth it.