So this is a wild one. During Aulelia's 2nd year at Georgia Tech, she was rooming with Laura Lanier and Katie Smith. Her roommate, Laura, was supposed to take place in a date auction at a fraternity, Phi Kappa Sigma, for their philanthropy. But she was sick and unable to attend, so she made Aulelia take her place. "Think of the Charity"! Aulelia borrowed a very pink, very short, very floral dress and went with her roommate to the fraternity to sit in her place. Come to find out after watching the other ladies up for auction, that each of the dates were supposed to prepare a short speech about why you should pick them. Well this was not information passed along to Aulelia. So instead she got up on stage and said something to the effect of "I didn't know I was supposed to say anything. I'm wearing this stupid dress, so let's just get this over with." Bidding begins and John is being out bid by some trolling fellow fraternity brothers to keep upping the price. By the end of an intent staring session with the other bidders he got his date at the most expensive price of the night. John comes up to Aulelia to re-introduce himself, as he had actually gone to breakfast in a group with Aulelia and Laura that morning. At this point, she states that she's never met him and he most certainly didn't go to breakfast with them this morning as the other person that had joined them was wearing a walking boot and he was not. (John had taken off the walking boot to look nice at the date auction.) After a little hiccup you would think we had reached the end, but oh no we haven't. The date itself was to a large group showing at a comedy show. Here John was trying to be sweet by letting Aulelia know she was the only person he wanted on the date. But then her phone died and she spends the whole date trying to talk her phone into working again. And he spent the whole date talking to literally everyone else. In conclusion, he was well warned.

The Peachtree Road Race is an Atlanta tradition with this year marking its 51st year. It is a Naefe-Morris tradition for the Bride's family, with this year marking Aulelia's 22nd year of running it. And it is a tradition for the couple with them now both participating since 2014. Over the July 4th holiday Aulelia's family travel into Atlanta to spend time together and to run the 6.2 mile race through the heart of Atlanta. Its a special holiday filled with food, cards, games, running, and free waffles. A perfect holiday. In 2020, the pandemic shut down the Peachtree's in-person event and ruined John's plan of proposing. But with the return of the in-person event in 2021, he was going to finally going to get to use his special plan. He had talked with her parents and went and bought a ring all in secret. There were of course some last minute snags, as she injured her foot and was unable to run. The possibility of her skipping the race was being thrown around. But stubbornness won out, as there was no way Aulelia was going to mess up her streak. John starting in a later corral then Aulelia so there was no way she was going to see the ring box early. As she started her race, he waited for the start holding a ring box. He stopped along the course to grab free beers and telling strangers the plan. She made it to the finish area first and waited for the rest of the group to arrive. When he got to the area he played it cool and waited until everyone was standing up to gather their things. He dropped down to one knee when she wasn't looking and surprised her when she turned around. All of it was sweet and thoughtful. Check out the video using the link below: https://photos.app.goo.gl/arwzLEGujMzE3KnW9 *warning - there is some expletive language in video*