After graduating from the University of Florida with a BS in Zoology, Hope volunteered in Greece, aiding with Crete's Sea Turtle Conservation. After graduating from Leeds Beckett University with a BA in Filmmaking, Aled was expectedly unemployed. Also volunteering at Archelon, Aled met Hope, and it wasn't long before he invited her to visit Wales where she fell in love with "the green green grass on home" (as Wales' patron saint Tom Jones once put it). We hope that all of you visiting Wales for the first time will fall in love with its landscape, culture and history just as Hope did back in 2019. To retrace our steps and plan your own trip, click on our 'Explore Wales' tab.

Having lived together in Cardiff for the best part of two years, Hope and Aled were forced to endure a long-distance period after Covid, during which Aled quarantined for two weeks in Morocco in order to visit Hope in the US afterwards. Since then, they have been fortunate enough to travel much more together, including the UK, USA, the Bahamas, Hungary, and Canada. All the while, Hope has somehow found time to pursue her conservation career as part of Brevard Zoo's "Restore Our Shores" programme, and Aled has written, directed, and produced a feature film called "The Mill Killers". Here's to more adventures to come!

On the 20th July 2024, Hope and Aled returned to the Greek island of Crete, specifically to Rethymno. Celebrating the 5th anniversary of the day they met in the very place they met, Aled could think of no better opportunity to pop the question. He arranged with the staff of the restaurant where they shared their first date in 2019 to film the proposal, and 2 years later, on the 7th anniversary of when they met, they will finally tie the knot in Cardiff, the city where they first lived together. They can't wait to share the day with all their favourite people - you!