we're on for march 6th!

Well everyone, it’s official, we’re moving forward with the wedding on March 6th! Just like our previous decisions to postpone the wedding, this one was not made lightly. A significant portion of our wedding guests are medical professionals, so I expect around half of our guests to be vaccinated. To those of you who have the ability to get the vaccine, please do. We want our wedding to be as safe as possible. That being said, if any of you still feel uncomfortable traveling, or being in a crowded setting at this time, we understand. To everyone else, please RSVP by February 6th! We reset the RSVPs in August, so make sure you’ve updated your status!

One year ago, today, Allison and I got engaged. Ironically, I had held off on proposing for a while because I was worried we hadn’t gone through enough turmoil in our relationship yet. Relationships are easy when life is easy, and our relationship had always felt so easy. Well those initial fears have been fully assuaged over the past year, because this past year has not been easy. Planning a wedding is difficult, dealing with vendors is stressful, and paying thousands of dollars is painful. To do it twice is even worse, but that leads me to the actual purpose of this update: We are rescheduling our wedding again, this time to March 6th, 2021. This is not a decision we’ve made lightly. As of right now, there isn’t a lockdown in place preventing us from having the wedding, but the situation is worse in Texas than it has been at any point so far. We just can’t accept this level of risk for our friends and family right now, especially given that so many of our wedding guests work in the medical field. I have reset the RSVP’s again, hopefully for the last time, so please fill them out before the start of February. We’re optimistic that this date will work out, but if it doesn’t, and we have to reschedule again, we will. If we have to reschedule the wedding 50 more times, we will, because ultimately, the driving force behind the wedding is more powerful than the driving force behind the postponements. The pandemic can delay us over and over again, but if I’ve learned one thing in my time with Allison, it’s that love is relentless.

Allison's 24th birthday was the day they met for the first time. It was the day of Allison's nursing school pinning ceremony. They hung out that night but nothing ever became of it. They saw each other again for Allison and Gavin's mutual friend Sara's birthday on the weekend of February 27-29, 2015. Allison, Gavin, Sara, and Caitlin all went to the Houston Rodeo cook-off the night of Saturday February 28. They all had a wonderful time and it was the first time that Gavin and Allison connected and thought maybe there is more to this than "just friends"...

Gavin and Allison began texting non-stop after Gavin came to Houston for Sara's birthday. A couple weeks after hitting things off, Allison went to Austin to visit Gavin for the weekend. Upon her arrival there, she was welcomed by all of Gavin's friends and roommates, Preston, Danny, Munsi, Teri, and Kristal. That Saturday they went to SXSW music festival in downtown Austin and ended up at a bar on Rainey St. called Lucille. It was at that very venue that Allison solidified her hold on Gavin by answering the question, "What is the capitol of Mongolia?", to which she answered without a moments hesitation, "Ulaanbaatar."

The very next weekend, they all went camping at Pace Bend park for Gavin's birthday with the addition of Hesam, Nafiz, Sara, Nafee, and Jonathan. We had a great time camping and it was the night of March 28,2015 while on the camp ground in their tent that Gavin asked, "I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to ask this but...will you go out with me?". Of course she accepted.

So they continued to date, having adventure after adventure falling deeper in love with each other. The first time they said "I love you" was November 2, 2015. For 1.5 years, they continued to drive back and forth form Houston to Austin to continue their relationship. It was hard but very worth it. In September of 2016, they decided to move in together and began the house hunt in the Houston area. In October 2016, they found their first home together in Pearland, TX and moved in together November 23, 2016.

Allison came home from work at around 7:30pm and Gavin suggested that they go have dinner at Salata together before heading home. When they arrived home, Gavin asked her to wait in the garage for 10 minutes so he could "finish cleaning up something in the house" to which she answered, "Absolutely not, you have 1 minute." Classic stubborn Allison. After 1 minute passed, Gavin came and got Allison from the garage and directed her through the garage door into the house. She immediately saw a chair draped with red cloth with a picture frame on it with several pictures in it. All of them from 2015. Gavin explained that these pictures were from the beginning of the relationship when it was brand new. He then directed her to another chair draped with red cloth with a picture frame with pictures from 2016 on it. Then another chair with pictures from 2017 on it. Then 2018. He then directed her attention to the back door. When she opened the back door, she saw a chair draped with red cloth with a ring box sitting on it. Gavin then asked her to reach down and plug in the cord that was laying on the ground. As she reached down to plug in the cord, Gavin grabbed the ring and got down on one knee and after she plugged in the cord she turned around to see him down on one knee and the back fence illuminated with the words "MARRY ME?". Of course she accepted.