We are no longer getting married in Stowe due to Vermont's travel restrictions. We are still in the process of figuring out what we can do on 8/22 to celebrate our marriage. With things changing daily, we know that we will probably have to make a very last minute decision on where and how to get married. We hope that all of you are doing well during this time, and we hope that we will be able to celebrate (in one way or another) soon!
Although Samantha and Michael both went to the University of Florida, had mutual friends and crossed the occasional path, it took a while for them to really meet. During their spring break of 2014, Samantha and Michael ended up in the small beach town of New Smyrna, FL. They spent a few days together in New Smyrna with mutual friends and just clicked. For the rest of Michael's senior year spring, they saw each other quite a bit. When Michael's graduation came around in May, Samantha was really sad because she thought she would likely never see him again because he was moving back to Texas....well clearly they saw each other again, or you wouldn't be reading this story! After a couple years filled with weekend visits between Florida and Texas, lots of texting and persistence on Samantha's part ;) they decided to make it official in December 2016. Samantha was able to convince her company to let her move to Dallas (from Orlando) in May 2017 and she flew back and forth to Orlando every week for about a year. In April 2018 she was able to stop traveling, and they moved in together in Dallas. Over the past few years they have traveled all over the world and have experienced some incredible things together! They've had beer and pretzels in Munich during Oktoberfest, played with elephants in Thailand, ate fondue in Switzerland, and wore wigs in Tokyo to a robot bar to mention a few! On September 25, 2019, Michael completely surprised Samantha with a proposal in Dallas, TX. She thought that they were just going to dinner at their favorite sushi place (and did not dress up), but Michael made sure that her nails looked good before he popped the question at a park in Dallas after dinner! Making the engagement even more exciting, he surprised her with a trip to Paris the very next day! It was perfect! In February, Michael and Samantha moved to Chicago and then in April they added a new puppy member to their family, Murphy!