It’s always interesting when people ask us how we met, now that we are married and getting ready to celebrate our love with our family and friends. The reality is that we met back in 2012, when I, Alex, had just moved to Salt Lake City from Brazil to start school at the University of Utah. I was a freshman, with braces on, razor shaved head, wearing cargo pants and DC shoes, pre-gaming for a party at Dre's house, with the "track & field girls". It is fair to say that the initial attraction was not mutual. Five years later, after a lifetime of individual personal achievements in Track & Field (Dre), Swimming (Alex), stumbling into each other in the weight room, braces removal, and a whole new wardrobe, we reconnected at last. It was on December 13th, 2016, at a Christmas themed bingo night at a fine dive bar called O'Shucks. We had both been invited by our mutual friend Brandon Young, and after sitting at the bar, Dre felt compelled to move seats as the person next to her smelled really bad. As such, Dre ended up seating next to me, and after years of knowing of each other, we finally had the chance to know each other. After exchanging "snapchats" that night, we ended up spending New Year's Eve together, and well, we've been each other's New Year's Eve kiss ever since! We dealt with long distance while Dre was pursuing her Master's degree at Stanford, and uncertainty around my permanency in the U.S. Day by day, our love, admiration, respect, friendship, and affection for each other grew stronger to the point where we simply couldn't bare not being married to each other, so on April 19th, 2023, we eloped! The beauty and emotion we experienced that day felt far too special to not be celebrated with our loved ones, so we are beyond excited to have you be a part of the celebration of our forever love at River Bottoms Ranch on July 27th, 2024!