COVID or not, the wedding WILL GO ON! We hope you will be there, but we completely understand if not

Our story began in the fall of 2009 in Raleigh, North Carolina when Alexander's friend, Jeremy, brought him along on a blind-date. I was 15 and he was 16. I was about 5ft 6in, and he was maybe 5ft 3in? Let's just say that the driver's license was very appealing. A few Facebook messages later and we were having very late night phone calls, on these things called house phones... On January 16th 2010, Alexander asked me (for the second time) to be his girlfriend. He had tied a puppy to a pole, with nobody around, and of course I had to check it out. Romantically, Alexander had put my name and "Will you go out with me?" on the dog-tag. This second time managed to win me over. Still melts my heart to this day. In the last 10 years we have been able to grow up together, fall in love, travel, study, move, and go through all of life's experiences together, good and bad. Words don't sum up our past 10 years together, but I can tell you our love continues to grow, whether smooth sails or choppy waters. Having the opportunity to experience growing up with the love of your life is a blessing few in this world are granted. We thank God we found each other and we are thrilled to be together through this journey that is life.

Following an amazing celebration of the Hays family in Gig Harbor, Washington. We headed up north to Vancouver, Canada. As recommended by everyone, we went to the Butchart Gardens. We stopped to have Sushi in Victoria, waiting for some overcast weather to pass. The sunshine came out and we proceeded to the gardens. We were blown away at the beauty of the gardens. As we approached the sunken gardens we climbed to the top of a staircase to overlook the Butchart Gardens. Truly one of the most breathtaking sights, if you ever have the chance. As she turned around to find me on one knee with a ring in my hand, her face went white and you could tell she was in disbelief. Not enough disbelief to pry the ring out of the box, which I took for an assumptive yes...we spent the rest of the day strolling the garden and having a romantic dinner in the Butchart house. The end to a perfect day we took the ferry back in to the harbor, to our incredible Airb&b reservations overlooking Stanley Park. The day could not have gone better.