Ashton Berry's mother gave her a sage piece of advice on June 26, 2001.
"She was like, 'Well, you just never know what the day's going to hold, Ashton,'" she says.
That was the day Ashton met Austin Samuelson.
Ashton and Austin were just 15 then, both on their way to Super Summer, a worship camp held at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ashton's hometown.
"I remember I was leaving the house and I had on a T-shirt and some Umbro shorts and flip flop shoes. And my mom said, 'Where are you going?' And I said, 'Well, I'm going to summer camp.' She goes, "Oh.' And I said, 'What? You don't like what I'm wearing?'" Ashton remembers.
Ashton laughed at her mom's advice but headed back upstairs to change into a white shirt and khaki skirt before heading to the cafeteria on campus to meet her friends.
She was running late because of her wardrobe change but her timing was impeccable. There was only one place to sit and it happened to be across the table from Austin's best friend. Austin, who had finished eating, got another tray and joined his friend.
"It was just an excuse to be there and to sit next to the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen," he says.
He asked her name but misunderstood and mistakenly called her "Ashley Mary" for the next few hours, but she didn't mind.
"He was my best friend from the second I met him, and that's not exaggerating at all," Ashton says. "After talking for just a few minutes we realized we had so much in common. We both love the same things and the little things in life, like we both had white Labs about the same age, we both love dogs, we both love being outside and being active and we just started talking and we ended up meeting to go to the service that night for camp."
When it was time to go home -- Austin lived in Vilonia -- Ashton wrote her number in the back of the journal he had brought to camp and then she waited for him to call.
"We met on June 26th and he waited until July 4th to call me," she says. "After that, the rest is history. Our junior and senior year in high school you didn't find a weekend when we weren't together."
He turned 16 before she did so he drove down to see her and they would go hiking or to the lake. When she was old enough to drive, they met occasionally at the River Market in Little Rock, and since Austin played football in high school she went to his games when she could.
"I actually got 'Most Spirited' at his high school which was so bizarre. I spent a lot of time up there with his friends and they thought that would be a funny joke," Ashton says.
After graduation, they both started classes at OBU.
"That was really special though because we got to go to college where we met at Ouachita at that summer camp," she says. "It was just a real treat, to be able to spend those four years that are just so fun and during such a unique place in your life with the person you're going to be with forever."
During the spring semester of their junior year, Ashton studied abroad in Europe. Austin made a journal for her to take on her trip, with little notes throughout for her to read while she was away. Just after she got back, he took her to the River Market in Little Rock.
"That was one of our favorite places to go when we first met and even in college we just loved hiking and biking and all of the above," Ashton says. "He had gotten that journal -- I didn't realize it -- and in the last couple of pages of that journal he had written out, 'Will you marry me?' in this very fine little note."
They exchanged their vows on June 14, 2008, in Berry Chapel at OBU, one of the places where they spent time on the first day they met, just a few days after they graduated.
The newlyweds moved to Santa Monica, Calif., where Ashton taught school and Austin worked in business. While they were there they learned about worldwide hunger and in 2010 they returned to Arkansas and plunged into the restaurant business, opening a mission-oriented pizza restaurant with a business model that allowed them to donate a portion of their sales to hunger relief organizations. Now they own Tacos 4 Life.
Ashton and Austin have two sons -- Jet, 3, and Finn, 18 months.
Austin's proposal, written in red crayon in Ashton's journal, is now framed and on the wall of their bedroom in Conway.
"I was able to take that moment and keep it with me forever. I have it framed under the picture where we first met," she says. "It's like a gift he gave me because you wish you could have those words and I do have them."
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The first time I saw my future spouse:
She says: “I thought, ‘I know that guy’s not coming to this table. There’s no way I could be that lucky.’”
He says: “I just remember thinking that is the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen in my life.”
On our wedding day:
She says: “It felt like the adventure was about to begin.”
He says: “I thought we had been planning this life together and now we were finally going to be able to start it. I was also thinking, ‘This is really nerve-wracking because weddings are awkward and very formal.’”
The best marriage advice I got:
She says: “It’s love that sometimes brings you together, but it’s grace that ends up keeping you together. And always keep God first in your relationship.”
He says: “This guy told me, ‘No matter what, always try to outlove Ashton. Don’t love her because of what she can do for you or what she can offer you or how that will make her feel, you just always try to win that outloving her game.’ That just really spoke to me. Maybe it’s because I’m very competitive and it’s right up my alley.”
High Profile on 12/17/2017