“We all act as hinges-fortuitous links between other people.” - Penelope Lively Montgomery & Julia unknowingly had been just one degree of separation from each other since college in many different scenarios & friends. However, it took a dating app & persistence to bring us together. He caught her attention by stating on his profile the number of weddings he had been in (23) & monogrammed gifts he had collected. Of course, this immediately caught her attention. She doesn’t monogram anything ever. Her response, “I have never met someone who rivaled me in weddings, but I can school you in monogramming.” He responded, stating that “he appreciated that, & if he ever were to get married, it would be on the Tuesday before Christmas because he has lost almost every summer holiday in his adult life.” As you can see, we have a large bridal party, but we aren’t getting married on a random Tuesday or a holiday. Just close to one. You are welcome! It took about a month before we agreed to meet in person. We felt it was safe, especially after we realized how many people we had in common & did not know how we had never met yet. We have concluded that God knew it wasn’t time, & we both needed to live the life before to come to the life we have today. So, we settled on a Tuesday night sushi dinner. It obviously went pretty well. So well that we met for a second date the following night at the OG Fish Bowl (IYKYK). After dinner, she invited him over to her place (across the street), & we got stuck in the elevator for about an hour. He did his best to try not to freak out but used his work knowledge to tell her what would occur. This kept her calm & made the situation not too hectic, but now just a funny story to tell. From that point on, it became clear there was a strong connection between us & we did not want to see anyone else. After that, we started seeing more of each other & looping in y’all. We couldn’t have been here without you in the first place.

The stage was set… We arrived at our house at The Greenbrier on Thursday afternoon for the July 4th weekend. That night we had dinner plans with friends. For background, this trip was initially planned for Memorial Day 2020 but canceled due to COVID. It was then rescheduled for MD2021, but at the last minute, the homeowner canceled. This trip had been scheduled since summer 2019 as Montgomery had already stayed here once for the guy’s fantasy football draft in Sept. 2019. Now, back to the story. While we were unpacking, he started talking about how they couldn’t figure out the house’s built-in speaker system. Julia said she would help him once done unpacking. Of course, he couldn’t wait & walked over, pressed play & magically it worked! After getting settled & unpacked, we had a couple of hours to kill before getting ready & leaving. When the time came to leave, Julia was already outside & in the car. We ran a bit close to our reservations, and neither of us likes to be late. Suddenly, he asked her to come back inside to help him turn off the speakers. She said he could do it, but he said he needed her help. She said we needed to go; it was raining (don’t get her hair wet), & he had figured it out earlier. He said, can you just help! Julia came back inside & walked over to the control cabinet & sitting on top was the ring box. Montgomery ran around behind her, got down on one knee, & said, “I don’t want to wait any longer. Will you marry me?” Of course, in her true nature at that moment, she was mad at his timing & responded with, “MAYBE.” She, obviously, followed up with “YES!” but was angry he didn’t do it earlier or the next day when she had a hair appointment & they had private dinner reservations. We wanted to tell the true story because it shows Montgomery's patience since he waited so long for the proposal, but when it came time, he couldn’t wait till the next day. Also, Julia’s need for things to be perfect, but it was the right moment.