Back in 2016 Andi’s brother in law helpfully suggested she start an account on FarmersOnly.com. It made sense, given that Andi had just recently moved from Boston to very rural, very Southern Sampson County, North Carolina, and most of her time was spent tending her goats, working on the farm and trying to keep her Dad’s livestock hauling business afloat. The pickings on FarmersOnly were slim, and Andi was about ready to throw in the towel. Edward’s luck on there wasn’t much better, to hear him tell it, but when they first started messaging he was intrigued by this South African New Englander raising goats in the middle of Nowhere, Sampson County. Andi’s patience with the cumbersome process of logging into FarmersOnly to send and read messages quickly wore thin, and even though a little voice in the back of her mind said “What about that blue eyed cutie from Johnston County?” she quit logging in and focused on Tinder instead. Until one night, while she was swiping left on Toothless, Spineless, and Marine Corps Player #69 from Jacksonville, when she came across the blue eyed cutie from Johnston County on Tinder. What were the chances?! She quickly swiped right… only to hear the sweet sound of a cash register *ka-ching* signifying that he had swiped right on her too! He liked her, he really liked her! The next day they talked on the phone. That Thursday they went on their first date at Oasis in Clinton and as she floated home on a cloud of bliss she realized she didn’t understand but 40% of what he said all night (that Joco accent is real, y’all) but she could listen to him tell of cropping ‘baccer, digging taters, and hunting hogs in the Neuse River Lowgrounds for a potentially very long time. Their second date was during a tropical storm, sitting on the porch of a cabin in the woods watching the rain fall and that’s when Andi knew she was a smitten kitten. And the rest, as they say… is history 😍

Most women dream of an elaborate proposal, meticulously planned out and featuring a spontaneous dance number, a flashmob, photographer and a bottle of champagne iced down and ready to pop. But Andi? Not so much. Maybe it’s that she just really enjoyed being in the moment with this guy, maybe it’s because she didn’t have any expectation of marriage, maybe it’s just because Ed loved her so well without any promise or guarantee or prompting. Maybe it was because it was just so good between them all along. But Andi? She never really thought about getting married, and that’s what made this proposal so freaking sweet. So in August 2020, after about 5 months of pandemic lockdown, Joco experienced it’s first hurricane/tropical storm of the season. Edward decided to fry some deer meat for dinner, and Andi was keeping him company in the kitchen. To be honest, neither of them remember how it came up, but at one point Andi blurted out “I want to get married…to you!” to which Edward responded “I want to marry you too!!” And then, just like that, they had decided and well, here we are just about a year later planning the ultimate celebration of this easy, nourishing, deeply grounded love with you fine folks. We can’t even wait to celebrate with you.