How we met
Brittny’s Side:
In the summer of June 2023, I had seen this stranger in the morning at the parking lot of our workplace. He was dressed to impress and had caught my eye. I continued to see him in the mornings walking into work so at this point I grew quite curious. As me and my best friend and co worker, Hannah (my now matron of honor), were trying to figure out who this man finally was, he had locked eyes with me as well. I got nervous and quickly looked away. My face had probably said it all. After giggling like a school girl with Hannah, we had learned his name. I half jokingly said to her, “Should I add him on Facebook?” and of course she encouraged me to do so. So I did and he accepted. While updating Hannah on everything about this, I see a message from him. It read “Were you the one staring at me in the parking lot?”. I was so embarrassed and again my face probably said it all. I told Hannah that “I have been caught” and there was no way around the question besides a simple “Yep that was me”. We started talking the rest of the day and learned more about each other then again the next day, and the next day and the rest is history.
Gary’s Side:
As Brittny said it was June 2023. I had just pulled into the parking lot at the hospital to go into work. As I was grabbing my backpack, I noticed a vehicle parked in front of me in the next row of parking and there was a girl sitting in a vehicle and it looked like she was staring at me and when she noticed I was looking at her and we locked eyes she quickly looked away. I thought to myself I wonder who she is and was pretty convinced she had been watching me before I even noticed she was looking at me. I thought that was kind of “odd” for a lack of better words as I had never had a situation like that happen to me before and then walked into work. It was about one or two hours later I noticed on my phone that I had gotten a new friend request on Facebook from Brittny Keller. My first thought was that this had to have been the girl from the parking lot earlier this morning and that this friend request was probably not just a coincidence. I accepted the friend request and then immediately decided to send her a message to confirm my suspicion. As Brittny said the first message I sent her was “Were you the one staring at me in the parking lot?”. It was only a few minutes later when she responded and said “Yep that was me”. From that morning on there hasn’t been a day we haven’t talked to each other.
Now what Brittny had failed to mention is that she had seen me in the parking lot multiple times over the previous month and she had been trying to figure out who I was. I had just never caught her looking at me until that morning. After she had filled me in on that part I told her “It sounds like you were stalking me” (obviously jokingly), but from then on I will occasionally remind her that she was the one that stalked me to give her crap. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t glad that she was so persistent in trying to figure out who I was and that she was able to finally figure it out.
Our Life Together Since
Once we had “officially” met and told each other our life stories, it did not take us long to finally meet up in person. I think it is safe to say that we were both nervous but hit it off. After telling our friends and family about each other, things had definitely started to get serious. In a corny way of saying it, we both just knew that we were the one for each other. We became inseparable and in the beginning of July 2023 we made it official. Enjoying our lives together, making so many fun memories, so many firsts, spending a lot of time with each other’s families and soaking in every moment.
In April of 2024 we welcomed our baby boy, Oliver Leroy Tommeraasen, into the world. Our hearts were so full already but this little boy gave us a love you could only ever dream about. He has been the best thing that has happened for either of us (aside from meeting each other). Ollie has the best little personality and it is so much fun for us to watch him grow into his own little person. We can’t believe he is already two! He loves oldies music (and will sing along to them) like Chantilly Lace, At the Hop, Barbara Ann, and many more. So don’t be surprised if some of these are played at the dance. We’re still half convinced that he is going to have his own playlist for the reception!
In January of 2025, Gary planned their first Oliver free weekend getaway. Ollie got to have his first sleep over with his cousins Hadley and Carter at Auntie Ann and Uncle Evan’s house! Gary took us to Sioux Falls for the both of us to celebrate what Brittny thought was just for her birthday. As we had just arrived, ready to go to dinner, Gary said he had a surprise. He gave Brittny a handmade card from Oliver and it read “Mommy, for your birthday daddy and I want to give you our last name! So make sure you say yes to daddy then we can all be Tommeraasen’s! Love, Daddy and Oliver”. Gary then went down on one knee and asked the big question and proposed! Brittny, of course filled with tears and excitement (he did tell her to wait to put her make up on until after she opened the card knowing she would cry), said yes so quickly and easily. After about 5-10 minutes had gone by, she had to ask him if she had even answered because she was so overwhelmed and happy she didn’t remember saying yes! After celebrating our engagement together, we shared the news with all of our family and friends. Brittny, finally able to have the same last name as her partner and her baby boy. Making our family of three more complete. We cannot wait to celebrate our love and our lives together, making more and more memories!
