On December 7, 2013, Kinson sent a message to Adrienne on Match.com. Kinson had just moved to Charlotte and Adrienne was still "commuting" to work in NYC from Charlotte. We had our first phone conversation on December 10th which lasted nearly 2 hours! Adrienne had been standing in a foyer of some random apartment building in Brooklyn to escape the cold and Kinson was sitting in his car after having just pulled into the gas station. It wasn't until after our conversation that Kinson realized his car battery died after leaving his headlights on. Clearly, we both had not planned to have the conversation go on so long! We made a plan to meet in Charlotte on December 14th for our first date, at 7th Street Public Market for a glass of wine. Half way into a bottle, it became clear we weren't ready to end the date, so we decided to have dinner together at Mert's Heart & Soul. Kinson was feeling pretty comfortable with Adrienne by this point, so comfortable that he helped himself to some of her pork chop when he saw how delicious it looked! But even the time at dinner wasn't enough. So after a drink at a nearby bar, we decided to meet for breakfast the next day. Midnight Dine, to this day, is one of our favorite breakfast spots! We spent that whole day together driving around and exploring Charlotte together. By the mid afternoon, as we sat with our beers overlooking the Catawba River, Kinson boldly declared he didn't want to date anyone else! He said, "I can't offer you much, but I promise you it will be interesting." And it truly has been :)

First comes love, then comes a house, then a business, then another house, and a baby...then a wedding! Although we've known from the beginning that we'd get to this point, we purposefully did not make having a wedding a priority and instead committed ourselves in other ways. But one day Kinson made a plan. He asked Adrienne's mom and stepfather for their blessing. He bought a ring. He hired a photographer. He arranged for a champagne toast at sunset. And he casually asked Adrienne to go out for a typical Friday night date at Camp North End. He even planned to have us meet some friends there (our witnesses!) Adrienne had no idea it was coming and that made it absolutely perfect! The site of our wedding is the same place we got engaged so be sure to ask us to show you the spot where Kinson got down on one knee and popped the question! We celebrated with some King of Pops (a local Popsicle vendor) and champagne followed by dinner at the award winning Leah & Louise restaurant.

Our cover photo serves as a dual announcement of the impending arrival of our first child - a daughter - in July 2021! She'll be at the wedding in November and even though she won't remember it, we are so excited that you will all get to meet her then as well.

We welcomed our daughter, Magaly Desmangles Martinez, on July 10, 2021 - the anniversary of our engagement :) She has quickly stolen our hearts and we cannot wait for you all to meet her in November!