** Faith asked me (Reed) to write our love story. I was told to make sure that the reader knew I wrote this and that it’s from my perspective. Only modest liberties were taken in the creation of what you are about to read.**

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is where it all began. As memory serves, it was a beautiful Saturday morning in early September of 2017. A Secret Service Officer, and more importantly, a good friend of mine, Adam, asked me to help him out with a tour for a new employee of the Administration and her friend, Kyra (Bridesmaid), who was visiting from out of town. To provide you with some context, I typically gave one of two types of tours. The first being, what I liked to call the transient tour – this tour was no longer than 30 minutes in duration and was for individuals whom I did not know well, nor did I want to spend too much time with. The second tour type, which all of you should be familiar with (you are invited to the wedding after all) is known as the friends and family tour of Casa Blanca. This tour is lengthy in duration and packed with historical anecdotes, personal stories, and some loose facts (dare I say alternative facts?). At the time of the request, I was fully prepared to provide this new employee and her friend with the transient tour. The door into the East Reception Room opened, and there was Faith – immediately, I knew I had to change the tour to the friends and family version. To make a long story short, it was the most enjoyable tour I had given, I was interesting, witty, personable and my comedic timing was on – Faith might disagree, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

A couple of weeks went by and I had 4 tickets to a Nationals' baseball game for Friday night from my mom. In my mind, this was the perfect opportunity to ask Faith out on a date – we could both bring a friend and it would be a low threat environment to have some fun. I walked over to Faith’s office in the East Wing with presidential chocolates in hand (I absolutely was trying to bribe her to go to the game with me). My plan was simple. Drop off the candy and very casually ask her if she wanted to go. For those that are unaware, the Calligraphy Office is staffed by the nicest ladies on the White House grounds. Unfortunately for me, all of them happened to be in the office at the time I walked over there. I’m not entirely sure what I was thinking – where else would they be on a Friday afternoon in the middle of a work day? I completely chickened out in asking Faith if she wanted to go. I had to adjust. I called my sister Taylor and demanded she help me draft up a text to Faith. I remember not knowing whether to start the text off with Hey or Hi – that’s how much I was overthinking. Well, the outcome was less than desirable. I was, REJECTED. I gave the performance of my life with the friends and family tour, I just brought over chocolate and I didn’t even get a follow up date. I was crushed. I thought to myself, it was either me or she really did not like baseball – I’m telling myself it’s the latter because we haven’t been to a baseball game to this day.

Another couple of weeks went by and Faith finally accepted to go out for dinner and drinks. A friend of mine conveniently worked right across the street from where dinner was planned in Georgetown. To calm my nerves, we had some pre-drink drinks. One led to two and two led to several. Fortunately for me, Faith thoroughly enjoyed my friend’s presence so much so that he was allowed to come to the dinner portion of our date. Thank you, Chris (we’re still friends, he’s a groomsman). A week went by and I wanted a redo first date with Faith, obviously without Chris. I mustered up the courage and requested said redo. I made reservations at FireFly in Dupont Circle for 8 o’clock. I was ready to go. In the days leading up to the date I prepared by reviewing dating websites which gave me some tips and tricks on good conversation topics. I figured if the interrogation-type questions were too direct I would need to be equipped with a more diverse strategy (what’s your favorite place on earth, know any good jokes, what makes you unique). I was raised with the following mantra, "5 minutes early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable!" It’s quite evident how they do things in Oklahoma is different, not good or bad, just different. I arrived at FireFly early, was seated at the table, and perusing the menu, at 7:55pm. What you order on a first date says a lot about you. I knew I needed to pick something conservative but memorable, reserved yet tasty. To say I had a lot of time to peruse would be an understatement. 8:05 turned into 8:15. 8:15 turned into 8:25. 8:25 then turned in 8:35. Did she forget? Was I being stood up? Was she with Chris? All questions racing through my mind, with no discernible answers. Eventually, Faith arrived. 40 minutes after 8 o’clock the date was off and running. There were 3 takeaways from the redo first date: the third times the charm, Faith likes to be fashionably late, and I knew I wanted to see her again (provided she’d be on time).

Fast forwarding to June of 2020 – by that time Faith and I had made career changes. We took our talents to supporting a presidential political campaign and joining the military, respectively. A silver lining of COVID-19 was that Faith was able to come out to California for prolonged periods of time, anywhere from 4-8 weeks in duration. It was great! Faith was at a rally in Oklahoma for the campaign. She found out on a Saturday that she would be able to come out to see me for a quick trip from Wednesday to Sunday before returning to D.C. I did not have a ring, but I knew that I needed to propose during this visit or else I’d have to wait until Taylor and Dennis’ wedding in September, which I’m sure would not have been warmly received. Upon hearing the news of Faith’s visit, I quickly called my dad and told him of my plans to propose to Faith. As he so often and lovingly does, he pointed out the obvious, the fact that I did not have a ring. Ultimately, he connected me with the jeweler who did mom’s engagement ring. The difficulty with this jeweler is that he was located in Israel. Getting in touch with him would be challenging – thank God for Zoom and email. On that Monday, I spoke with him at length concerning the specifications of the ring – describing everything I possibly could. I also expressed the incredibly short timeline I was on in order to get this accomplished. The toughest part about this entire endeavor was the logistics. He had four days to make a custom ring and get it to me. At this point, I wasn’t even concerned with Faith saying yes (or no) to my inevitable question. How do you make an engagement ring and get it delivered half way across the world in just four days? Well, somehow he did it. I don’t know how, but he did.

On Friday, Faith and I were heading to Napa for a nice getaway weekend before she’d leave Sunday evening. On the drive, I told her I had to stop at the Napa FedEx to mail out a package for my dad since I didn’t have time earlier that morning. The jeweler overnighted the ring and it was there waiting for me. It was like something out of a movie, everything went according to plan. It wasn’t until I got back into the car with Faith, with the ring now in my possession, that I realized – holy crap, I am about to propose. The realization of having to ask Faith the question was finally settling in. Luckily, we were heading to Domaine Carneros, a champagne vineyard, with alcohol. Everything was going great. The champagne tasting was calming my nerves, just like it was supposed to; I couldn’t tell you what I was drinking but it was working. I got up to go to the bathroom to give myself a last second pep-talk before I’d pop the question. (There’s a rumor out there that Faith saw the ring buldge in my back pocket, meaning that all the hard work and secrecy of the surprise engagement would be for not. I would very much like to address this – she might have, I might have blown it.) As I was looking in the bathroom mirror, giving myself the pump-up speech of a lifetime, the last thought that crossed my mind was, “well if she says no, at least I’m in Napa.” In all honesty, I wish I could tell you I recited what I wanted to say perfectly, but everything I rehearsed the day before and the morning of, escaped me in the moment. All you need to know is she said, yes. It needs to be noted that the engagement would not have been successful without the assistance of Maddy and Alex (bridesmaid and groomsman) ~ I appreciate you both tremendously. That special day was only made possible because of your efforts.

Faith and I are very excited to celebrate our day with you. We are very much looking forward to seeing you on June 4, 2022, at the Clifton in Charlottesville, VA. Hopefully she won’t keep us waiting too long, but if she does, just know she’s worth the wait.