We both attended Blue Ridge Leaders School as teenagers with our local YMCAs, but never officially met until BRLS Visitors’ Day in 2012. We had a mutual friend, Aly, who was the catalyst of our first interaction which was over the coveted Pfefferle gumbo. We briefly stayed in touch here and there throughout the rest of that year, especially after Major came into the picture. Steve came to Raleigh for a job interview in February 2013 and after some convincing, we met up with a group of friends for dinner where we spent the entire night just talking to each other. Raleigh is and will always be a special place to us, we had our first kiss outside of Raleigh Times and our first date at Boylan Bridge Brewpub. In the 6 years we've been together, we've had a lot of adventures: few years of long distance, trips across the country and abroad, and several multi city moves. We currently live in New York City with our black lab Major, but cannot wait to return to the place where our adventure began and celebrate with all of you!

This year for Christmas, we had our first joint family holiday at the Van Horn’s in Sunset Beach, NC. We were having a shrimp boil the night before Christmas Eve and while everyone was inside setting up for dinner, I (Steve) asked Abby’s parents for their permission to marry her. The plan was to take Abby to her favorite spot on the beach, The Kindred Spirit. The Kindred Spirit is a mailbox pushed back into the dunes at the farthest end point of the island. It has become a symbol of Sunset Beach and locals, tourists alike would walk to the mailbox and leave letters there. Part of the magic of the mailbox, no one knew who took care of the mailbox and refilled the notepads as visitors had filled them with their hopes and dreams. Abby had taken me there the first time I visited Sunset Beach and told me "I have prayed that one day I would bring my future husband here.” Whenever we visited, we had always made a trip to the Kindred Spirit so when I asked if we could take Major for a walk out to the mailbox she didn’t even think anything of it. On Christmas Eve, I enlisted my brother and Best Man, Reid, and together we devised a plan for him to “go wrap presents” at the second house we were using for the week. He walked ahead of Abby, Major and I and hid in the dunes to take photos of the proposal. We arrived at the mailbox about 45 minutes later (sorry Reid!) and we talked for a few minutes. At this point, I took both of Abby's hands, told her how much I love her and how Major and I cannot and do not want to live without her. With Major by my side, I got down on one knee and asked Abby to marry me. Before we left the mailbox, we wrote our own letter about the proposal. We walked back to Abby’s parents’ house where we were greeted by both our families with the same love and excitement that we have for our future.