Career Technical and Agricultural Education department teacher Jillian Bryant (right) and Wilson Bryant Air Conditioning manager Josh Bryant (left) pose for a picture during their wedding on Dec. 16, 2018. After only dating for two years, Jillian knew that Josh was the one for her. “(Josh) was the first person, for a lack of a better term, I ‘Didn’t have to play games with’ and wondering what they were thinking or anything like that. He was very upfront the whole time (in our relationship),” Jillian said. “We just always never fought a lot, we never had a big issue, we really wanted the same things in life.” Photo courtesy of Jillian Bryant
Career Technical and Agricultural Education department teacher Jillian Bryant got married during winter break and looks back on her wedding.
Morale Chair Bria Echols: When did y’all first meet?
CTAE teacher Jillian Bryant: It’s probably been two and a half years. We met in March of 2016.
BE: Could you describe your first impression of him?
JB: When we first met, I wasn’t used to southern accents. He is very southern, and a lot of people in Athens don’t have that accent. So, at first, I thought, ‘This person is very southern.’ You kind of make that, you kind make assumptions about people sometimes. He was very different than what I expected. He was very nervous for our first date, very shy. He almost spilled his water. You (could) tell he was very embarrassed. You can tell he was very genuine.
BE: How would you describe each other’s personalities?
JB: So he is very thoughtful and sweet, and he’s also nerdy, but in a good way. He’s just very goofy but not. He’s like a combo of different things, but our personalities mix well. He’s definitely more of an introvert.
BE: How long have you been dating?
JB: We moved kind of fast, like two weeks later he was at my apartment. I ordered Thai food, and he never had Thai food before. He was eating some pad thai. We had talked about ‘Are we boyfriend and girlfriend or anything like that?’ and he’s eating his pathai and he’s like, ‘I’m going to take this to lunch tomorrow, and I’m gonna tell coworkers that my girlfriend bought my pad thai.’ I kind of looked at him and he looked at me like, ‘Can I tell them that my girlfriend bought me pad thai?’ I was like, ‘Yes.’ And he was like, ‘Okay.’
BE: So when did y’all get engaged?
JB: We got engaged during the eclipse in 2017. It wasn’t quite on the same day. He planned to ask me during the eclipse, but he was impatient. We actually went up to Tennessee, we were in North Carolina on Lakeside Mountain. We were going to watch it, but it was actually cloudy and we couldn’t see it by the time the eclipse came around.
BE: How did you know that he was the one?
JB: So, and I say this to a lot of students too, I feel like when you go through life you date people, not that I dated a whole lot of people or anything. One, (Josh) was the first person, for a lack of a better term, I ‘Didn’t have to play games with’ and wondering what they were thinking or anything like that. He was very upfront the whole time. We just always never fought a lot, we never had a big issue, we really wanted the same things in life. One of the big things that made us want to move forward was both of us didn’t want kids when we met. And then, throughout the course of the relationship, we had this point where we were having a conversation, but we both were kind of avoiding admitting to the other one that we wanted to have kids now and then we were like, “Oh, okay you want to have kids too? Okay, we’re good.” We were scared to bring it up. We just really want the same things in life. We have a lot of the same core values and life outlooks.
BE: When did you get married?
JB: December 16, 2018.
BE: What was the wedding like?
JB: So, it was very small. We only had about 45 people there. It was a little more intimate for a lack of a better term. We did, I don’t want to say we did a Christmas theme because it wasn’t Christmas, but we did kind of darker colors that kind of go with Christmas. We had Christmas greenery on the tables and that sort of thing, so it was just very low key. It was very sweet. It was good.
BE: What were your favorite moments at the wedding?
JB: It was fun being able to take (wedding) pictures (after the wedding). It was also just fun getting the chance to spend time with my family and getting ready with my close friends and that sort of thing because I don’t see them very often, and it was in Pennsylvania, so I don’t see them all that often. Just being able to see all of it, and it was really special.
BE: What was your favorite moment together in general?
JB: Well the engagement, not just for the engagement, but going out and seeing the eclipse looking on Lakeside mountain it was really fun. We really like just traveling together and just seeing things together. Being able to spend that time together — it’s been really fun. This is a weird adult thing, but seeing his relationship grow with my parents and getting close with them has been pretty neat. I don’t know. It’s hard to pick specific things with it, but yeah.
