Our Story
Emma's Perspective
Bride
R.J. and I met in 2014, not long after I had graduated from college. I was taking a year off to figure out what to do next. In order to continue training BJJ, I joined what was then Funk Fitness in Brighton. The owner, Craig, mentioned that he would sometimes go to open mat training in Plymouth at a gym called Kaizen BJJ and invited me along. So, we started carpooling to Kaizen around once a week. It was at Kaizen BJJ that R.J. and I met and started training together. We were around the same size and skill level, so we made ideal partners for one another. Years later, in 2019, Kaizen BJJ would be where R.J. would propose. I can think of a number of different eras and phases of our relationship: getting drunk over pizza and sangria slushies the evening we agreed to be a couple in 2015, moving to Ann Arbor for grad school, moving in together with R.J.'s brother Chris (and surviving the pandemic together), vacationing as a family to the Philippines, moving into our own apartment, then buying a house a year later, and getting officially married in a tiny ceremony at his parents' house New Year's Eve of 2022. I am so thankful for our life together as a couple and the community we build by choice around us. Now, we are still adjusting to home ownership and training extensively at Commonwealth BJJ in Livonia. We work long hours, train long hours, and push our limits, but we do it together as a team. I couldn't ask for a more honest, trusting, empowering relationship.
R.J.'s Perspective
Groom
I met Emma when she started visiting Kaizen BJJ some time in late 2014. Craig Funk would bring her to the Tuesday morning class. Even back then, her expression of jiujitsu and technical execution were a beautiful thing to behold. Our rolls would often end with both of us laughing at the sheer joy we felt training with each other. Outside of training, we had great chemistry. This chemistry was not unnoticed by our other training partners. After Emma and Funk left after a training session, our friends Kristi and Derek asked me, "So, what do you think of Emma?" I replied, "She is a strong, comely woman." "You two would be so cute together!" They weren't wrong. However, we were training partners, and while it wasn't prohibited, there's always a chance that a relationship doesn't work out or advances are rebuffed. I wasn't eager to ruin that. But that didn't faze her at all. In April, Emma started showing up to "Monday Mambo," a latin dance event in Ann Arbor I had inherited, driving in from almost an hour away. She didn't know how to dance. By May, she was making excuses to come visit me multiple times a week. She had also made the decision to start a Master's program at Michigan in the Fall. At that point, I felt it was futile to deny the relationship we were steadily building. We admitted our feelings for each other over pizza and a pitcher of Constant Buzz at Dominick's... ...And then Dawn and Chuck had to pick her up because she got too sick to drive home!