Fredericksburg Natives to Wed After Seven Years kind of ‘out of sight, out of mind.’ We were just so young.”
While Lindsey Behrends and Jake Duderstadt have been “High School Sweethearts” for over seven years, their story began in a fifth-grade classroom.
Senior year, the Class of 2017 crowned Behrends and Duderstadt with the “High School Sweethearts” superlative, and the couple’s title is preserved in the pages of that year’s FHS yearbook The Mesa.
Both grew up in Fredericksburg, and attended Stonewall Elementary School, outside of town.
Both hailing from life-long Texas A&M University Aggie families, the couple then attended the university. While Behrends said they were “always strong” in high school, their relationship was forged into one strong enough to evolve with the inevitable life changes that the college years brought.
Years later, after attending separate middle schools, they reunited in a freshman-level geography class at Fredericksburg High School. “We sat close to one another and just talked every day. We would snapchat and text. We were really immature high school kids,” Behrends said. Their relationship blossomed among the plethora of summer festivals and events in Gillespie County. Like any quintessential young couple in classic movies, Behrends and Duderstadt danced together at the small-town Stonewall Peach Jamboree and Rodeo in June of 2014, and rode the Ferris wheel at the county fair later that summer. On Oct. 3 that year, Duderstadt “nervously sat in the stands” while Behrends competed for the
Lindsey Behrends and Jake Duderstadt
volleyball team. Afterward, he brought her a volleyball with the question, “Girlfriend?” written on its surface. For the next three years, the two were each other’s built-in date for homecomings, prom and other hometown events. “I don’t ever remember really thinking that we’d get married, but I also didn’t think we weren’t going to get married,” Behrends said. “It was
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“It’s been really special that since we’ve grown up together, we’ve been in each life stage together,” Behrends said. “As we came to college, we changed so much in our goals. It’s cool to see how we’ve done so independently, so that we can come together and serve one another better once we become one.” Duderstadt agreed. “We’ve been together longer than some people have been friends, and we’ve been best friends,” he said.
