Madeline and Nic Anderle knew they had found their everlasting true love the day they first met.
“It’s like, when the time is right, you just know. I kind of felt like he was maybe my husband, and it turns out he felt the same way about me being his future wife,” 25-year-old Madeline told The Epoch Times.
The first encounter took place in 2022, and this couple tied the knot on May 26, 2024, at Omni PGA Frisco in Dallas.
To commemorate their relationship, the photographer and social media influencer from Dallas, Texas, created a video capturing the special moments in their journey. It left their wedding guests amazed, bringing many to tears.
At the end of the nearly five-minute montage, Madeline revealed how God orchestrated bringing them together.
Six months before having any contact with the man who would later become her husband, Madeline attended a Christian conference at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
“He and his friends were together, and mine were together,” Madeline said. “We had never met before, but we ended up sitting in the same area, and he was right behind me in a photo.”
Nick, 26, hails from Cleveland, Ohio. He got to know Madeline through a mutual friend and reached out to her with a direct message on Instagram.
Despite initial hesitation about connecting with a stranger online, Madeline, vacationing with family at the beach, decided to respond.
Shortly after, Madeline posted a message on her profile requesting “financial help.” With a background in investment banking, Nick volunteered to assist her, and they arranged a video call.
“We had a video call that lasted for several hours. We lost track of time, talking until three in the morning, discussing many things,” Madeline said. Nick, residing in Charlotte, was eager to visit her in Dallas.
Despite the distance, they were determined to meet. When they finally came face to face, Madeline was captivated by Nick.
“He had many qualities I admired. He was very hardworking, very disciplined,” she said. “We both are passionate about health and wellness, so we connected on that, and our faith is important to us.”
She was sure he was her true love. She captured their first meeting with a camera.
And she was right.
From their first weekend spent together, they were inseparable, officially dating within less than a month.
As their relationship began as a long-distance one, whenever they met up, Madeline would capture the moments with her camera.
“I really want to preserve these memories, so when we are older, we can look back on them… show them to our children,” she said, recalling how her parents always recorded videos of her and her siblings with a camcorder.
Maintaining a long-distance relationship was challenging, as they had work commitments, sometimes going up to six weeks without seeing each other. But during those times, Madeline said they built trust through communication. The couple even “got creative” with virtual dates: cooking dinner together and watching movies regularly.
Furthermore, the videos she recorded were “joyful memories” worth cherishing.
After a year of dating, they got engaged. And a year later, they were married.
Reflecting on their wedding over Memorial Day weekend, Madeline said watching the video diary of their relationship was “very emotional” for both of them.
Seeing Nick shed tears, Madeline was overwhelmed by the “surreal” feeling.
“We couldn’t believe we took such a leap,” she said. “He flew to me. We wanted to see what would happen, and now, here we are married.”
Their marriage is a happy one, and Madeline reminisces about the photos of Nick appearing in the background at a conference, likening it to an “invisible string theory.”
“It’s like you were always there, but I didn’t know,” she said, “We completely believe God orchestrated it all. That photo was a sign that we were on the right path. We were right there, five feet apart from each other, and we had never even met before.”
She encourages other young women to continue waiting for their partners.
“When your true love really shows up, they will add something to your life, not take away from it,” she said. “‘When the time is right, you’ll know.’ That old saying is indeed true.”