We met in 1999 sitting on the circle rug in Mrs. Haig's Kindergarten Class. Call it luck or fate, alphabetical order placed Boucher and Brait right next to each other. From classmates, to friends, to best friends, we remained by each other's sides throughout elementary, middle, and high school. Despite everyone's efforts to get us to date, we remained "best friends", knowing how precious and rare our friendship was, not wanting to risk messing it up. This was mostly a mutual agreement, despite Taylor's attempt to marry Michelle in Kindergarten, be Michelle's valentine in 7th grade, and Michelle's boyfriend in 8th grade. Let's just say that by high school, we were in full agreement about just being best friends. Our sophomore year of high school, our friends were steadfast in their effort to bring us together so much that they all rallied together to help us win Homecoming Prince and Princess as a couple, despite the many dating couples we ran against. Nonetheless, high school was filled with cheering each other on from the soccer sidelines/baseball bleachers, trips to Maine and Boston, and more. Once college came around, it was time to separate for the first time, Taylor heading to the University of South Carolina and Michelle to Chapman University. Though we still remained close, college was a time for each of us to grow individually. Michelle was able to visit Taylor in Columbia, SC our senior year of college, truly tying a bow on the college experience. However, after college, it seemed like we'd never live in the same place every again. Taylor was in Miami getting his masters and working in track and field at the University of Miami, and Michelle began teaching in Los Angeles while getting her masters. From Miami, Taylor moved to Fort Myers to begin working for the Red Sox. We were long-distance best friends, and it seemed like something we needed to get used to. However, during the 2019 holiday season when Taylor was finally able to come home, everything quickly changed. After getting some true, quality time face to face, we realized that while coaching each other in and out of relationships our entire lives, we were truly just looking for each other. It hit us both like a truck. We had built our dream partner out of one another without even realizing it. Well, here's actually a little secret...Taylor had actually realized it months earlier and professed his love for Michelle to her twin sister, Nicole, at a bar in New York, but they both swore to secrecy to allow things to play out naturally, if at all. Knowing how scary of a line it was to cross, and know what a true gentleman Taylor is and was, Michelle fully admits to making the first move. Thankfully she did though, because it was game over from the moment it started. By January 2020, after an amazing trip to Hong Kong with the Bouchers, and despite our best effort to still appear as "just friends" to Sharon and Glen, we both knew we had found our forever person - we just had to figure out the logistics of living in different states, having very demanding jobs, and telling our family and friends that they had been right all along. From months of spending every day with our families in California, to spending four months isolated in Florida so Taylor could continue working for the Red Sox while Michelle taught remotely, to long distance trips back and forth to Boston and LA, nothing was going to get in our way of being together. Despite it all, we proved to be stronger and better for it. Knowing without any reservations that we had found our forever person, Taylor proposed on July 22, 2022 in Phippsburg, Maine at the location his parents got married. Surrounded by our closest friends and family, we started our journey to husband and wife. Now, we cannot wait to celebrate our start of forever with you all on July 5th, 2025 at Botanica!