Let's Celebrate!

Mike and Jojo met in Bai in 2015. Jojo was teaching in Cambodia at the time but had flown to Bali to visit her friend Brydie. Mike and Brydie taught at the same school and had become fast friends. Colleagues of Mike and Brydie were getting married and Brydie had been able to get Jojo an invitation. Mike and Jojo met on the steps of the venue and were both interested immediately. They chatted at the table and then flirted at the drink station. On the dance floor they realized, for the first time, that they shared a similar free spirit and exuberance. A month after meeting in Bali Mike visited Jojo in Cambodia. That summer Jojo visited Mike in Colorado. Then, at the end of September, Jojo moved to Bali! Mike and Jojo lived in Bali for a year. They spent a week bikepacking around the island of Lombok, three weeks driving around New Zealand in a van, and two weeks stranded in Kinshasa, DR Congo. The more time they spent together the more apparent it was that they had each found their soulmate - someone who embraced life, people, and adventure with the same enthusiasm and joy. When they moved back to Colorado Jojo went to nursing school and Mike taught high school. They bought a house in Longmont and established a wonderful community of friends there. Mike proposed on one of their favorite local hikes in 2019, four years after Jojo moved to Bali. In January of 2020 they discovered they were pregnant! Then, in July 2020 Mike was diagnosed with lymphoma. Hand in hand they welcomed the birth of their first baby, Marley, while also fighting cancer ('the dust'). Their love for each other gave them strength. Together, with Marley, they Crushed The Dust. For Mike and Jojo, this gathering is so much more than a wedding. It is a celebration of love, commitment, family and friendship. It is also an opportunity for them to say THANK YOU to the extraordinary family and friends who supported them during their fight against the dust.