Many of you may or may not have experience online dating... but it's a tough scene out there. Months of failed online chatting, high hopes, countless disappointments, awkward first dates, the list goes on. Over the years, I became highly skeptical and easily dismissive of most of the men online. I even refused to call them by their real names until they were deemed "important enough" to remember their names. (Billy's code name was "Moto" since he rides a motorcycle... unoriginal, I know). Billy and I met on a site called OkCupid. The funny part, is that we had messaged briefly on/off the previous year or so, but the conversation had never gotten anywhere, mainly because I kept seeing his profile switch from Houston to New Orleans (read: PLAYER!). Come to find out, he was an offshore engineer traveling back and forth every month, which also was a deterrent because I had no interest in someone who would be gone all the time. However, one day, Billy caught my attention long enough for us to have an actual conversation. He asked for my number in April of 2016, and it all began there! Me, being the skeptic still, I found "Moto" to be quite odd. Sending snapchats of himself dancing alone & singing along or with a little plastic owl he found on the ship that he used to give mock voices and stuff. Definitely odd, but I laughed nonetheless. About a month later, he was due to get off the ship and arrive in Houston. He promptly set up a date the week of his arrival, and I pondered whether I would actually go and meet up with this strange guy.

I was leaning heavily towards the “not happening” side, (mainly to avoid another awkward first date over drinks) until Moto asked me on the only original date I had ever been asked on. High speed go kart racing. Now that’s my kind of date! The day of, I got the text that he was there to pick me up, and I head outside to face my future husband! (Who knew!) I found him wondering around my parking garage with a single yellow rose. I was shocked at how much taller and attractive he was in real life. And with a rose! Jackpot! Then the rest of the date was disastrous. Not in the sense that we didn’t get along, but in the sense that nothing went right! As we drove to the go kart place, the sky was filled with lightning, a big storm obviously brewing. (Now I like to think it was due to the electricity between us!) We arrived at the go kart place to find it closed until later that evening and Billy started to panic. Luckily, there was a Mexican restaurant across the street I suggested we go to, and he happily agreed to kill some time there until hopefully the go kart place would open again. We made it into the restaurant, promptly followed by a severe hail storm—all over Billy’s beautiful truck. In the restaurant, someone screamed a tornado must be coming from the way the wind was blowing, and I had two thoughts. 1- this is terrifying, please don't be a tornado and 2- this guy is going to lose it because his truck is getting pelted with hail right now. Luckily, no tornado occurred, and when I nervously asked Billy what to do about his truck, he replied “there’s nothing I can do about it now!” and instantly I felt a million times better. He wasn't one of "those" guys- whew! Everything was going against us, but we weathered the storm and in the end, we made it to the racing! (Yes, Billy won). This was the first date of many that brought us to find the love of our lives! We hope you can make it to our wedding and continue to be a part of our story!