We're getting marriedWe're getting married

Johnny Some love stories begin with a grand introduction. Ours began quietly, long before either of us understood what was being written. It was the summer of 2011 when I first met Salina. Her uncle—known as TK, UK, or “Bruh”—was celebrating his birthday and housewarming. He had recently welcomed me into our fraternity, so my line brothers and I joined the celebration. Salina was there, but at the time, she was simply family. We were young, living separate lives, and the timing was not yet ours. Still, she had already found her way into my world. Salina Even before that summer, our lives had been circling one another. My aunt grew up with the woman who became the wife of Johnny’s favorite cousin. When they married in 2009, Johnny was supposed to be in their wedding, but an internship at Yale took him away. I was there, never knowing the person I would one day marry was already connected to my story. That is how destiny sometimes works. It places two people within the same orbit and waits for them to notice. Johnny Over the years, our paths kept crossing. I attended graduate school at Hampton University while Salina was nearby at Old Dominion University. We saw each other at dinners and gatherings with people we loved. I especially remember dinner at 456 Fish in Norfolk—the first time we truly sat and talked. Being around her felt easy, warm, and natural. She was familiar long before I understood what that familiarity would become. Salina For years, Johnny was simply Johnny—someone connected to the people I loved, whose presence always felt comfortable. Then came CIAA in Charlotte in 2018. This time, the way we saw one another was different. Johnny offered to be there if I needed anything during the weekend. It was a simple gesture, but there was something beneath it—something thoughtful, intentional, and new. Our connection felt effortless. What had once felt like familiarity began to feel like possibility. The person who had always existed in the background of my life was suddenly standing clearly in front of me. And this time, I noticed. Johnny She caught the meaning behind my offer, and our story began moving forward. We talked more, laughed more, and learned one another beyond the family ties and shared history. Soon, it became clear that all those years of crossing paths had never been accidental. On July 4, 2019, I made it official. In a story shaped by timing, it felt fitting that our beginning should be marked by fireworks. Salina Loving Johnny did not feel like meeting a stranger and falling in love. It felt like recognizing someone my heart had known for a very long time. When the right moment arrived, everything felt easy. Familiar. Certain. It felt as though life had spent years quietly leading us toward one another. Together Our story was not written in a straight line. It traveled through different cities and seasons, waiting through missed moments and separate journeys until the time was finally ours. But the best stories are not rushed. They unfold exactly as they are meant to. What began as two lives moving within the same orbit has become a friendship, a love, and a promise of forever. There could be no more meaningful place to begin that forever than Rome. Known as the Eternal City, Rome has endured for centuries—changing and growing while never losing the history at its heart. It reminds us that the most meaningful things are shaped not by one moment, but by the seasons they survive and the stories they carry. Rome reflects our love: years in the making, built upon history, and still becoming something new. Beneath the Roman sky, where past and present live beautifully together, we will honor everything that brought us here and celebrate everything still to come. We were always meant to find one another. We simply had to wait for the right time. And now, in the Eternal City, our once upon a time is becoming forever.