Krystina and Kris knew each other before they ever even met. One of Krystina’s good friends was dating one of Chris’s friends back when the two were in high school. When her friend met Kris, she immediately noticed how similar he was to Krystina, and spent weeks trying to convince her that they had to meet. It turns out, Kris’s friend was working the same angle on him! Eventually it worked, and the two met at a party back in the spring of 2007, it was connection at first sight. “We had so much in common it was unreal,” says Krystina. They started dating, and two years later he proposed. They got married and now, a decade later, they’re more in love than ever!

Their marriage was sparked by true passion and deep love. After Kris joined the army in summer 2009, he went away to Georgia for 4 months for training. While he was there, the couple’s only form of communication was written letters, and in true Notebook fashion, Kris wrote Krystina a letter every single day. As Krystina tells it, his letters were full of declarations of love and desires to be together. And then, a special letter arrived. A letter asking her to marry him. Krystina was initially in shock, considering they were only 20, but after a lot of discussion, she agreed. As soon as he got back from training, they eloped in a courthouse with a handful of family and friends!

Despite her initial reluctance, Krystina’s leap of faith turned out to be one of the best decisions she’s made. “I loved him fiercely and he was my best friend,” she says, “the person I loved spending ALL of my time with. But at 20 years old, my mind was not thinking about forever. I took a huge leap of faith, and I’m so happy I did.” 

Though their relationship has faced its fair share of challenges, their love has only grown stronger. Between getting married so young, quickly moving to Tennessee away from family and friends, and Kris being deployed to Afghanistan 4 months into their marriage, they had a rocky start. When he came back from Afghanistan after a year away, it was a huge transition point in their relationship, and they endured things they both thought would absolutely break us. “It’s pretty amazing to see what we have overcome,” says Krystina. “We made it, and I couldn’t be more proud of us.”