We became instant friends while working at Outback steakhouse. Paul was the GREATEST bus boy Nicole had as a server (besides his brother Tommy of course). They were a fantastic team and quickly hit it off. They soon realized they went to the same college and jumped at the opportunity to carpool to school in Detroit together. We were 18 years young when we first fell in love but life took us our separate ways after a while of dating. Although we were young and not ready for a serious relationship at the time, we still thought the world of each other and were dedicated to keeping our friendship throughout the years.

(Disclaimer: if you are not into mushy love stories, now would probably be a great time to stop reading. And for those that love love, here's the rest of our story;) 8 years later, Paul was living in California when he came home to Michigan to visit family for Christmas. It had been many years since we had seen each other and decided to grab lunch at Applebees and catch up on life, as we had often done before. There are many versions of this story, yet the main point behind each point of view is that; Nicole truly believed that their conversations were strictly intended for friendship and Paul's point of view was that it was secretly always much more than friends. Over lunch, Paul casually invited Nicole to visit him in CA. Not thinking much of it, Nicole agreed that it'd be great to go explore LA, yet did not put much weight to a casual invitation. Weeks went by after they had lunch together and Paul began asking Nicole if she was serious about flying to CA. Although Nicole was slightly confused about his intentions, she agreed to come to visit after a little persuasion. After all, she was intrigued by traveling at this time of life and became excited to plan a whole trip of exploring in LA and catching up with Paul. As soon as Nicole stepped off of the plane, she was more excited than ever to see the ocean (for it was in the middle of a cold February in MI). In fact, she demanded Paul take her to the beach at midnight after her plane landed! We had a blast together. A few days into the trip exploring around LA, Nicole and Paul were playing darts against Tommy and Evan when Paul abruptly pulled Nicole into the other room. He demanded she sit down and that he needed to tell her something. "If I don't tell you this now, I am going to regret it for the rest of my life. I need to tell you that after all these years, I am still in love with you."

After months of flying back and forth from Michigan to California, we knew we needed to be with each other, yet at first, we had NO idea how it was going to happen. God rearranged some things, offered Paul a job on the east coast, and although this was way outside of our plans, we decided to choose each other and to follow God's plan for us. Everyone thought we might be crazy, but we both had never been more sure of a decision in our lives. It hasn't always been easy. In fact, it has taken us years to fully understand and get to know one another, but we wouldn't take anything back for the world. We absolutely LOVED our lives together in Pennsylvania. We created a home and life filled with so much peace, love, and met so many amazing people we will call friends, forever. We traveled the entire east coast together and have grown so much together spiritually.

In 2019, during a family vacation; Paul proposed on Panama City Beach in the sand during family photos. We spent over a year planning our wedding and hand-making all of the decorations. Nicole found her dream wedding dress and had daydreamed about how fun the wedding day would be for years. In the crazy year of 2020, we had to make the heartbreaking decision to cancel and reschedule our wedding. We decided our love was most important and decided to get married anyway in a small intimate setting. We also decided to start a family and just gave birth to our beautiful daughter in May, 2021. Wow, what a difference a year can make! And through all of this, we made another cross-country move in 2020 and are now settling down in what we hope to be our final destination in Prescott, Arizona near some of our family. And now, finally, in September 2021; We're SO excited to continue to celebrate our love and finally share our special day with friends and family!