WHAT A DUO. I had an absolute blast with these two as I third-wheeled them on this lovely Saturday afternoon. They wrestled, frolicked, hit sticks against trees (@Cole lol – check out the first photo below), and so much more during our thirty minutes together, and it was WONDERFUL.
I have the honor of knowing both Cole & Andrea through my time at Vanderbilt. I met Andrea about a year and a half ago when she was elected to be our sorority’s secretary as a freshman and I was elected as our president. Due to some other factors, I had not met Andrea until election night, and I remember knowing every other officer I was to serve with, except this little freshman. I could tell she was cool, though, and I really wanted to know her better.
The first time we hung out was a group dinner at Mellow Mushroom by Vanderbilt, and I still remember my first impression of her. She was radiant, joyful, kind, passionate, a wonderful listener, and had great ideas for the sorority. Oh, and absolutely hilarious LOL (way too much of our friendship is spent laughing at each other and I wouldn’t have it any other way).
Anyway, we spent the past year serving together as co-officers and it was truly amazing. She supported me so well as president and was an all-around wonderful secretary, and she ended up running for president as well and it’s been sweet and encouraging to see her fit into that role so well (God truly equips those that He calls, #iykyk).
AND THEN IN WALKS COLE INTO HER LIFE. I still remember the day they met because I’ve never seen Cole smile so easily — Andrea broke down every wall he’s ever had just by her presence. I remember sitting on the floor in Kissam with Andrea and she’s texting this man and she shows me his text “I don’t know why I’m still awake I should have been asleep a long time ago” and that’s when we KNEW this man was important.
My favorite memory with them? We had planned a date party at a friends’ house in Nashville and I had all the stuff split between our storage area and my dorm room, and no hands to carry it all. I called Andrea to help me out, and after a few minutes, she shows up with Cole too (they weren’t dating yet). Cole immediately takes everything from my hands, comes to my room and grabs the rest, brings everything to my car, and lets us drive him to somewhere even farther from where he was going. This man would literally go anywhere for Andrea, and it was sweet to see that so early on. (I took lots of creepy photos of them during this interaction and Cole didn’t know about it LOL). Sweet man, sweet couple. They started dating the week that school ended for COVID and so the beginning of their relationship was PURE long distance, but they embraced it and made the best of it. WOW.
Anddddd then over this summer, I got a phone call late at night from Andrea randomly, calling to ask me to disciple her since we were no longer co-officers (I had mentioned the year before that I would love to disciple her but since we served together I just wouldn’t be able to do it well). Of COURSE I said yes, and so I’ve been able to meet with this girl weekly, see how God is moving in her life, pray for her, and just hear about all the things in her life. It’s been sweet to do life with her and worship God alongside her, because her joy for the Lord is so contagious. It’s also been sweet to see her pursue her illustrations and designs and just share her amazing talents to the world — she actually does illustrations for each of my wedding couples (so if ya book with me, stay tuned for some amazing illustrations from her!). She’s actually the best, and you should catch her on Instagram at @andreadorantesart.
These two freakin’ killed their session. Check out these photos!! They truly know each other so well and know how to make each other smile EEP.
So much fun!! Love coming back to read this blog and be reminded of such a sweet afternoon 🙂