We're Getting Married!

During our final year of college, Allie and I were living with friends at Wrightsville Beach, and despite overlapping social circles we had not formally met. Eventually on one chilly afternoon in January, an invitation to enjoy margaritas on the deck was exchanged between our roommates. This innocent gesture brought us together for the very first time, but it was clear even early on that we brought out the best in each other.

After a year soaking up the sun in Wrightsville, we each took steps to continue our education through graduate programs. As fate would have it, we were accepted into independent programs roughly six hours drive from one-another. We would alternate road trips between the University of Tennessee's Health Science Center in Memphis and the Gulf Coast Research Lab of the University of Southern Mississippi in Ocean Springs. Over the following three years we enjoyed countless servings of Memphis bbq and all the New Orleans style cajun shrimp we could eat. Spending our days biking out to East Beach and our evenings in the French Quarter, we made the most of this unexpected detour on our journey together. After graduating we both landed positions working in Mississippi and finally had the opportunity to settle in together under one roof along with Pepper our sweet little pup.

Following an abrupt end to a year-contract working in Mississippi, we found ourselves chasing a new opportunity half way across the country up to Maine southern coast. With fantasies of all the lobster we could eat and adventures in the snow we packed up all we had into a U-haul and made the journey up to our new homes. Arriving in November, our first winter was tough, but we weathered the cold and emerged out the other side to one of the most beautiful summers we've shared together. Portland had left its mark on us.