One glorious Saturday in Athens, this outgoing, extremely extroverted girl was working a tailgate for the Georgia Alumni Association. At the same time, a calm, cool, and collected boy also joined to work the event. After some banter and friendly sharing of a Chick-fil-A chicken biscuit, the two realized all their friends had already headed to Sanford Stadium to cheer on the DAWGS, so they might as well go to the game together. After all, the girl thought, he's kinda cute. It was a victory for the dawgs that day and so the two decided to go jump in North Fountain to celebrate (it was raining that day so why not?). Hungry from the win and soaked from the rain and fountain spelunking, the pair headed to Ted Most Best, a local favorite joint in downtown Athens. The day continued, full of laughter, talk of food and family and, really for the first time, these two college kids got to know one another. The boy drove the girl back to her dorm and then she grinned from ear-to-ear as she said goodnight (yes, they spent the ENTIRE day together). Two weeks passed and the girl thought, what a nice guy. I love making new friends. It was then the girl got a Facebook message from the boy (he didn't have her digits) inviting her to lunch. What the girl didn't know, was this lunch was a date! She quickly realized when the boy picked up the bill and flashed his pearly whites saying, "I got this." Several hangouts, dates, student events, basketball games, "accidentally" running into each other between classes, and Friday Athens adventures later, the girl was smitten. Six joyful years later on a beach in Puerto Rico, the boy COMPLETELY SUPRISED his girl asking her to be man and wife, lifelong partners, and forever committed to encouraging each other to be their best selves. The shock wore off, she said yes and the celebrations began. Now this couple is preparing their hearts with the support of their faith, family and friends to begin this next chapter together. Cheers!

Emilie and I met in a UGA student club called the Student Alumni Council, but it was many months before really had a conversation together. Nonetheless, we got along extremely well and got to know each other quickly. After we spent a an entire day together, I went back home and figured I needed to play it cool before we hung out again. I reached out a couple of weeks later and then then it was game on! We hung out many times for looong periods of time—just spending hours sitting on my car trunk eating frozen yogurt (Emilie's favorite), hanging out on the Myers Quad lawn faking our way through playing the guitar and just passing time together. On the New Year's Eve after we met, we had our first kiss (she is still mad at me that it took months) and we haven't looked back since, spending time together laughing, exploring, comforting each other in bad times and celebrating the good memories. In early 2019, I spent many weeks ring shopping—anyone who knows Emilie understands that her style is not easy to shop for 😉—and I successfully surprised her by dropping to one near on a knee on a beach in Puerto Rico and asking her to marry me. We are both excited for you join us in the beginning of our marriage and know that you are in important person in our lives.