Who knew that a silly dating app would lead to a life long commitment? Apprehensively, I signed up for Bumble after being coerced by my girlfriends. Hamilton eagerly joined to "see what's out there." During a girls night out, I was showing my friends how the app worked, explaining that I hadn't swiped right or left on Hamilton because I just wasn't sure that he was my type. They swipe right as they giggled "he's cute!" We matched. The next day, I reached out to inquire about his weekend plans. We found that we were both headed to the Chili Cook-Off the next day and agreed to meet there. What was the harm? A casual meeting during the middle of the day with a few thousand of your closest friends... no commitment there. Little did we know, that day would mark the beginning of our life long journey together.

Shelly and I planned to head to Seattle to visit her Sister Susie and Brother-in-Law Jason for a long weekend. at the end of June in 2019. I had spoken to Susie, Shelly's Father, and Shelly's Brother Frank, who lives in New York, and told them of my intention to ask their sister to marry me while we were in Seattle. The plan was for me to ask her on Susie and Jason's roof top on Saturday afternoon. Susie would FaceTime Frank so he could be there as well, then we would head to dinner. We woke up on Saturday and all went for a run, then decided to rent a boat on Lake Washington. Following the boat ride we came home and calmly rushed Shelly to get ready hours before dinner so we could "hang out on the roof". We were all hanging out on the roof top over looking Ballard, WA and I sneaked downstairs to get the ring I had hidden in the very bottom of my briefcase. I came up stairs and got Shelly to stand up by saying I wanted to take a picture with her then dropped to a knee and popped the question. To my relief she said yes and agreed to spend the rest of her life with me, making me the happiest man alive. We are so excited to share the next chapter of our lives with you and hope you will join us in Birmingham!

We appreciate everyone's patience. Who would have known that over a year later we would still be navigating a global pandemic and the constantly changing information. We are excited to have our reception and can't wait to celebrate with you all! The reception will be held at BridgeStreet Gallery and Loft in downtown Birmingham. We have room blocks reserved at the ALOFT hotel and Embassy Suites in Homewood. It is just a short drive from Homewood to BridgeStreet. We will continue to update the website as we have more details. Thank you for joining us!!!