Lara and Jacob met shortly after arriving to summer staff orientation at Lutheridge in 2012. Lara interrupted Jacob playing foursquare to tell him she liked his Hogwarts shirt. The two became friends throughout orientation and the first few weeks of camp. Week 5 Lara was assigned general duty and crafts and Jacob had a cabin of first campers (first and second graders). Jacob spent his free time casually coming to visit crafts and Lara got to serve Jacob’s table in the dining hall. Wednesday’s at camp are “ask your server day” and Jacob took this opportunity to find out all of Lara’s favorite things. He passed her a note asking to hang out this weekend “like just us” and crafted the first date around her answers. Their first date consisted of eating pizza (with pepperoni and mushrooms), raspberries and chocolate cake; driving the parkway listening to Don McLean’s “American Pie,” and star gazing. The two “made it official” two weeks later sitting on the dam watching fireflies.

After leaving camp, Lara and Jacob returned to school: Lara at USC in Columbia and Jacob at Duke in Durham. The long distance felt further due to Lara’s lack of a drivers license. Lara got familiar with the Amtrak station in Columbia and they were frequent Skype users. Summers were spent working together at Lutheridge. After graduating, Lara went to grad school in Rock Hill and Jacob moved to Springville, to work at an outdoor school (which did not have cell service) and Lara got to become familiar with not being able to talk to Jacob whenever she wanted and the Charlotte airport. For Lara’s second year of grad school, Jacob moved to San Francisco. Summers continued to be their together time, now spent in California. The cross-country relationship made for many west coast adventures but the two are happy to finally be living in the same zip code. Lara teaches art in Greenville county, Jacob works at Southern Growl in Greer brewing and beer tending, and they live with their adopted fluffy children Sully and Zowski.

Jacob still went for the surprise factor by telling Lara she was not invited to his “boys weekend” with his college friends in Asheville. Lara invited herself anyway and joined in a Saturday brewery tour. Sunday morning everyone rode the parkway through peak fall colors and stopped for a hike. Jacob asked Lara if she wanted to get a picture together at a scenic spot in the the woods. While cameras were out, Jacob surprised everyone and got down on a knee. Remember that Hogwarts shirt Jacob was wearing when they met? Lara was wearing a Harry Potter shirt on the hike so Jacob reminded her of their very first encounter and asked her to marry him. Special thanks to Andy and Vincent for continuing to take pictures even though it was a surprise to all of us!