Our story began online in 2020 where we had our first date at Burke Lake Park and Gabe surprised Celine with a birthday gift as her birthday was a few days prior. Many dates, adventures, and trips (including a long deployment and two moves) later, Gabe proposed in August 2024 on a family trip to Hawaii and thus began the next exciting chapter of our lives! While we settled on July 4th, 2026 as our large formal wedding celebration, we felt as though that was a little too far in the future as we would be engaged for two years. So we decided to privately tie the knot on July 4th, 2025 with close family and friends. We are so excited to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary with you all and to have an amazing day filled with love and laughter!

We had no prior intention of booking our event on July 4th. However, while searching for a venue, we waited too long to choose an event space and July 4th, 2026 happened to be the first available day within the timeline that we wanted. What originally started as a joke turned into more thoughtful conversations about it actually being a good option. Why not get married on July 4th? It is easy date to remember, it is on a Saturday and the 250th anniversary, we will always get the day off, it is close to our dating anniversary (July 8th), and most importantly will be a funny story to tell. So we did it! In celebration of our July 4th anniversary and as new fans of National Parks, we are starting a new tradition by visiting a new National Park every year for our anniversary to explore the United States' natural beauty.