Her first clue he might be the one for her came when he kept his cool after an hour in the cold, struggling with a wheel stuck with rust that made it impossible to change the tire he'd shredded against her curb.

It was around midnight a few Decembers ago, when Sammie Houfek and Derrik Bever were co-workers on their way to becoming college sweethearts. After dazzling her with his Guitar Hero skills, he impressed her even more with the patience and sense of humor he displayed during that tire-changing challenge at the end of the night.

They wouldn't officially begin to date for a few more weeks, but one thing was clear even sooner: Their easy connection and admiration of each other's qualities could make for a forever.

That forever began in a fairly unassuming way: Through jobs in the meat department at Hy-Vee in Maryville, Missouri, where they both attended Northwest Missouri State University. They met in September 2015 and began getting to know each other outside of work a couple months later, when Sammie asked Derrik to text her their shift schedule while she was in Nebraska over Thanksgiving break.

This provided the perfect opportunity for them to start talking — which led to an official start to their relationship in January 2016, when Derrik asked Sammie to be his girlfriend while hanging out at her house after a belated Christmas party.

According to him, she just couldn’t resist his jokes, so agreeing to date him was a no-brainer. She concurs that his sense of humor was a major plus, and over time, she also grew to appreciate his intelligence, his patience and the support he gave her in stressful situations (not to mention the way his calm personality helped her become less stressed in general).

“We’ve always been pals,” Sammie adds. “We just get along really well.”

Sammie + Derrik

an easy friendship leads to forever

By Erin Wisdom-Watson

"We've always been pals.
We just
get along
really well."

On his part, Derrik appreciated early on that Sammie was kind and easy to talk to, showed herself to be loyal, shared his interest in the outdoors and understood his dry humor. 

In the year and a half that followed, their relationship weathered the pressures of college — punctuated by simple traditions like Pizza Hut dates, always in the same specific booth. And by the time Derrik left Northwest to take a job in 2017, there was no doubt in their minds that marriage was in their future.

“We just meshed so well together that over time, that was the natural progression,” Derrik says, adding that they haven’t ever really had an argument. “Our communication skills are very good. So if we have a problem, we can solve it the same day and nothing progresses into something bigger than it needs to be.”

They were also in agreement about waiting to plan a wedding until after Sammie graduated from college in May 2018. As that date approached, she knew a proposal could come at any time — but Derrik still managed to catch her by surprise when he popped the question during a trip to South Dakota that April.

The moment came after an icy 3.5-mile hike to the top of Black Elk Peak in the Black Hills, as well as after a whirlwind week of planning on Derrik’s part to have an engagement ring ready on time. In the end, everything came together perfectly — with Sammie too shocked and happy to even care that she became a fiancée while wearing sweatpants around her neck as a scarf.

They shared their big news with their families after Sammie’s graduation the following weekend and have been planning their wedding ever since — managing to fulfill her dream of a fall wedding by settling on a date of October 14, 2018. They’ll marry at Paradise Park in Oregon, Missouri, a secluded setting nestled in the woods that speaks to their shared love of nature.

After their wedding will come a weeklong honeymoon in Hawaii, and then — if Derrik has his way — “not planning anything for the next five years.”

He adds, though, that they want to see as much of the world as they can together. And Sammie notes that whatever the future holds, the foundation they’ve built makes her sure there’s no one else she’d want by her side.

“I’ve had some rough times, but he’s always been there for me,” she says. “And I know he always will be.”

"We've always been pals.
We just get along really well."