James and Charlotte met at a high school party in 2013. Nothing happened then, but a month later, they were both in Paris over Spring Break and unintentionally met up again thanks to mutual friends. When it began to rain, Charlotte quickly snuck under his umbrella and linked arms with him. They walked arm-in-arm for the rest of the evening. He kissed her as he said goodbye and Charlotte wrote in her journal afterwards that "c'était vraiment magique!" Charlotte found out they were officially together a couple of months later when James broke up with her in anticipation of her move for college. He even gifted her breakup earrings! They were talking again two days later. The next eight years involved a lot of long distance, innumerable Skype and FaceTime calls, many airport pickups, a semester spent together studying in Barbados, a few moves, graduations, first jobs, trips, a global pandemic (and subsequent move to Hawaii), and plenty of good food and good waves. We are so excited to celebrate with you!

James proposed mid-pandemic, shortly after the two had moved to Maui. They had just completed their mandatory two-week quarantine and were going to spend a long weekend in Hana. The whole day had been exceptional - the road to Hana, with its many single-way bridges and sharp turns, its picturesque waterfalls and its jungle trails, had been completely devoid of any other tourists. They had spent the day hiking, swimming and talking. Upon arriving to their cute Airbnb in town, they got really good Thai food takeout and overate. As they were getting ready to play cards with a glass of wine and some ice cream (Charlotte was in the process of pouring the wine), James called her into the bedroom. He seemed nervous and Charlotte wondered what was going on. Then he started to talk and his voice was shaky and Charlotte wondered if her was about to propose. Then he got down on one knee and took out a beautiful ring and Charlotte knew he was proposing. She didn't say "yes" for five minutes because she was crying too many happy tears. James was shirtless (because they were in Hawaii) and Charlotte was pantless (because she had forgotten her pijamas) and it was perfect.