Some love stories happen quickly. Ours took a little longer. In February 2012, John Paul traveled to New Orleans for Mardi Gras with his high school best friend, Rene Paul. One evening during the trip, they stopped by Rene's grandmother's house. Sitting around the kitchen table that night, John Paul and Elizabeth met for the very first time. At the time, neither one of us could have imagined where that chance meeting would eventually lead. What followed was 11 years of shameless flirting, a lot of back and forth, and many Bacchus Sunday parades before we finally went on our first date. In a perfect full-circle moment, we shared our first kiss in the driveway of the very same house where we first met. A house that we now both call home! From there, our relationship continued to grow, even across state lines. On a quiet Sunday evening in November 2025, John Paul told Elizabeth that it would be the honor of his life to marry her. Through happy tears, she said, "Yes!" A few months later, on Bacchus Sunday, he publicly proposed in front of family, friends, and the city that had been part of our story from the very beginning. After years of friendship, patience, distance, and perfect timing, we are so grateful that life kept bringing us back to one another. We can't wait to begin this next chapter as husband and wife and are excited to build a home, a family, and future together in Louisiana.