This is the Person I Want to Build My Life With

On April 18th, I officiated Peyton and Isaac's wedding ceremony at The Manor in Edmond, Oklahoma. Here are the remarks I shared with them and their guests:

From Peyton and Isaac, I think we learn something about the quiet power of clarity.
 
Peyton’s story is shaped by strength, both inherited and chosen. She was raised by two parents who modeled, in different but equally powerful ways, what it means to live with purpose. And Peyton took those lessons seriously. Whether it was athletics, the arts, or now her path toward veterinary medicine, she has always approached her life with determination and direction. She planned her future, she pursued it, and she continues to build it with intention. What stands out is not just ambition, but honesty. She does not pretend certainty where it does not exist, but she moves forward with clarity about what matters.
 
Isaac’s story moves along a different track but arrives in a similar place. He was raised in a deeply Jewish environment, immersed in tradition, learning Hebrew, celebrating holidays, and even marking his Bar Mitzvah at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Judaism, for him, became not only a religion but a core identity. And even when life took him far from that environment, to Oklahoma to pursue Taekwondo at a higher level, he carried that identity with him. Not always in strict practice, but in a way that grounded him in who he is.
 
And that authenticity, that sense of knowing oneself, seems to be what allowed them to recognize each other so clearly.
 
They met, like so many couples today, on a dating app. Peyton says Isaac was one of the very first people she spoke to there, and in fact the only person she truly went on a date with. Isaac insists that we note, for the historical record, that she messaged him first. And from the beginning, something important happened between them: they spoke openly and honestly about their values and their future. Peyton says that was a major reason she was drawn to him. She wanted someone stable, someone aspirational, someone whose goals aligned with her own.
 
Isaac remembers the first time he saw her walk out the door for their date. He says he was “awe struck not only by how beautiful she was, but by how strong and tall she carried herself.” And as they sat together at dinner, he says he hung on every word she spoke, thinking to himself, “This is it, she’s the one.”
 
Now, we might think that certainty like that is the whole story. But what they teach us is that love is not only about the first impression. It is about what follows.
 
Peyton describes Isaac as someone who “sees the world in a lighter and less cynical way.” Someone open, loving, and dependable, the kind of person his friends know they can count on. And Isaac describes life with Peyton as something remarkable in its simplicity. He says that even the dullest moments become bright when he is with her, and that moving through life together feels natural and full of love.
 
What I hear in both of their essays is something we do not talk about often enough: ease. Not that life will be easy, but that being together feels right. That when two people share values, support each other’s ambitions, and genuinely enjoy each other’s company, the partnership itself becomes a place of stability.
 
Peyton says she wanted someone who would love her for who she is and support the decisions she makes. Isaac says that with Peyton he feels an ease in moving through life that he never imagined. And together they say something very practical, almost refreshingly straightforward: this is the moment in their lives when marriage simply makes sense. They want to build a home, create a family, and step into the future together.
 
So what can we learn from Peyton and Isaac?
 
We can learn that love grows best in honesty.
We can learn that identity does not have to be identical for two people to share values.
We can learn that sometimes the most important quality in a partner is not drama or intensity, but steadiness.
 
And perhaps most importantly, we can learn that a strong marriage begins not with perfection, but with two people who look at each other and say, with clear eyes and open hearts: this is the person I want to build my life with.
 
Peyton and Isaac, thank you for reminding all of us of that. May your life together be filled with the same laughter, support, and quiet strength that brought you here today.