happily ever after starts here

One of my best friends (hey, Kendra!) and I were planning to go to a Pride Crawl in Richmond. Bar hopping with my bestie? For Pride? Absolutely! She had invited her friend, Darryl, and he invited his roommate, Naethan. But that's not actually when we met. We coincidentally both texted Kendra on the same day - me, all dressed up with nowhere to go, him, just got off of work and looking to be out of the house. Luckily for us, Kendra had already thrown us in a group chat (she gets all the credit for the reason we are here now), and we started planning a night out together, with my other besties, Tessa and Liv, along for the ride as well. We ended up having a great night, and a week later was the Pride Crawl, which also happened to be his birthday weekend. I wasn't really seeking a relationship or anything from these interactions, we were just having fun, and I was open to whatever opportunities presented themselves. The Pride Crawl also went well (and honestly, meeting a man so comfortable in his sexuality that he didn't mind going to a Pride Crawl as a straight man? It was giving green flag), so we started chatting here and there. We initially bonded over House of the Dragon and watching the new episodes together each Sunday, sending memes back and forth about the new episodes each week. We had a lot of shared interest in nerdy things, specifically Game of Thrones, so you can probably see why our wedding is fantasy-inspired. It also doesn't help that our first initials are literally "D and D", like the showrunners of Game of Thrones and also the game (though I admit, I've never played). Within a couple weeks, we had started dating. I won't lie...I said "I love you" first, and we started talking engagement and wedding very early. People tend to say "when you know, you know" when it comes to love, and both of us knew immediately that we had finally found our forever person. Now here we are - a ring on my finger, a wedding date on the calendar, and the rest is history!

The day we met, I had work. It was a decent day, and I didn't want to drive all the way back to Midlothian after work. I wanted to keep the train going of having fun and being out of the house, and I wanted to go out with some friends. I hit up my friend Kendra, and she said her homegirls were also trying to go out. I went and got my party favors while I was waiting to hear back on the plans, and she said it was going to be four girls and me, and so I invited my roommate Naet to come along so I wasn't the only guy. We all met up at Sticky Rice, and I thought she was pretty, but I also thought she would judge me because I smoke and everyone else was smoking - except her. Then we met up again the next weekend. First time went well, so the second time we actually started talking and hitting it off. I saw she had a nice behind and said, "I need that." I got a little more information because I was curious and asked Kendra about her. I have always said that there was no point in me going out to meet people because I always knew my future wife would be an introvert, in the house minding her business or out shopping at Target, and I knew I wasn't going to find her out and about at a bar. So, when I found out she lived right down the street from my mom, stayed in the house and read her books, only went out here and there, I had a feeling I'd found my girl. We watched two episodes of House of the Dragon together, and then she wasn't able to come over to watch the next one. When I couldn't figure out if I was sad I couldn't watch the episode or sad she wasn't with me, I thought, "Damn, I think I really like her." About two months into dating, I introduced her to my mom and stepdad as my "pre-wife" because they say "when you know, you know," and I knew, so why waste time?