It was 16 years ago when Amanda Lonnemann and Aaron Dressman first walked down the aisle together. It wasn't, however, until Saturday night that they were married.

Aaron Dressman and Amanda Lonnemann after their wedding Saturday night. (Brandi Stafford photo) | ZOOM |

        The couple's love story is almost like a fairy tale. They were 4 (Amanda) and 8 (Aaron), when they participated in the wedding of Amanda's aunt, Jill Daly, and Aaron's uncle, Bob Dahlenburg. Amanda was the flower girl. Aaron was the ring bearer.

        “She was crazy about him at the reception,” says Kim Lonnemann, Amanda's mother. “All she did that night was talk about him.”

        “I always got teased about that,” says Amanda. “Yes, I did always have a crush on Aaron.”

        Aaron, being the typical 8-year-old, couldn't care less about Amanda's appraisal, or any girl's, for that matter.

Flower girl and ring bearer | ZOOM |

Husband and wife | ZOOM |

        “I had heard whispers from others over the years that Amanda liked me,” Mr. Dressman says. “We went to the same school at different times (St. Henry Elementary and High School in Erlanger), and I saw her once for about five minutes during some family event.”

        It was the four-year age difference that kept them apart, he says. He did think she was attractive but too young to date.

        Then, three years ago on June 2, they ran into each other at Riverbend during a Dave Matthews Band concert. He was talking to a mutual friend when she walked up to him.

        “She was cute and seemed fun,” Mr. Dressman says. “She'd grown up a lot.” They hit it off instantly.

        “We spent the rest of the evening ignoring the concert and just talking to each other,” says Ms. Lonnemann.

        At the end of the evening, he suggested she call him to set up a date but she resisted.

        “No,” Ms. Lonnemann said, "I can't call boys.' ”

        They agreed to meet at Uno's Pizzeria in Clifton after returning from separate vacations a week later, and then the romance began.

        During their first “official” date, he remembers being impressed at how mature she had become, no longer the wide-eyed little girl he danced with years before. They discovered they had a lot in common, a result of growing up in the same area and attending the same church and schools.

        “I liked that we had a lot of the same values and we talked easily to each other,” Mr. Dressman says.

        “The thing I like most about Aaron is that he makes me laugh,” Ms. Lonnemann says.

        Last year on May 18, the couple was watching Dr. Doolittle on TV at Mr. Dressman's condo.

        “He kept scratching his leg like something was really itching him,” she recalled. “I finally asked him, "What's wrong with you?' and that's when he got down on one knee, said a lot of really sweet things I can't remember because I was crying so much and then he asked me to marry him.”

        So, in a fairy tale ending, the 25-year-old Brescia University grad and Delta Airlines baggage handler married the 20-year-old Northern Kentucky University graduate Saturday among family, friends and the parish that nourished and raised them in each other's shadows, guiding them to become one and dance together again, this time as husband and wife.

        And does the bride have any advice for girls still holding crushes on boys who won't give them the time of day?

        “Don't give up hope, dreams do come true,” she says.

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