AJ and I briefly met in June 2016, but didnt reconnect until March 2017 when I moved to West Palm Beach, Florida. Our first conversation revolved around our mutual affinity for 90’s grunge music. We spent endless hours driving the intercoastal highways listening to the music that had shaped each of us respectively, all the while falling more and more for one another. A short month later (April 14th to be exact), we decided to become “official”. We spent our time talking about everything under the sun, watching The Office, falling in love with each others little quirks, being beach bums, and growing together. The following August, we moved to Mississippi to start building a life together. Along the way we have aquired our incredibly spoiled fur babies - Athena, an American Bully pup and our kitties, Bagheera and Ravioli. Our journey includes a lot of curveballs, plenty of ups and downs; but this adventure has been by far the best of our lives and we are so grateful to be starting this new chapter.

Knowing my love for Christmas and my family, AJ made this one extra special. From the time my cousins and I were born my family spent nearly every Christmas morning having breakfast at my Nana’s house. Since my daddy passed away and new members of the family had been welcomed in, that tradition had changed. This was the first time in about 4 years that we gathered at Nana’s again and I couldn’t have been more excited. AJ had previously asked my grandfather for his blessing, and took this opportunity to ask me to spend the rest of my life with him.