It was summer 2016 and Justine's coworkers at Vera Bradley, including William's sister Darimarie, suggested Justine and William meet for the first time at a dive bar called Peabody's. That night went swimmingly. Justine proceeded to get nervously drunk and get sick in the bathroom while William only mustered a few words to her all night while they played pool with friends. Little did Justine know that night that she had made an impression on William. Fast forward more than 2 years later to November 2018. Darimarie messaged William that Justine had reached out to her for a letter of recommendation as she was applying to graduate school at LSU. William saw this as an opportunity to slide into her DM's on Instagram to congratulate her on her clear successes. William remembers vividly the moment he sent the message as he nervously tossed his phone to the side and didn't check for a couple hours, in fear that she had either seen the message and not responded or even more crazily, had had seen the message and replied. This was a start of a back and forth dialogue that lasted many weeks until one day Justine bluntly pointed out that it was stupid to keep talking on the phone when in fact we could see each other in person. Terrified, William agreed that this was a good idea. Fast forward to January, 2019, the first date. At the time, Justine lived in Gainesville, FL while William lived in Orlando, FL. The date had been set and Justine agreed to make the 2 hour drive down south to visit William at his apartment. They ordered in sushi and listened to one of William’s favorite albums on the record player, The Buena Vista Social Club. They then proceeded to watch a horror movie called Hereditary, much to the dismay of William (she would later find out that he in fact, hates most types of horror movies). After the movie, William put on another one of his albums, Modern Vampires of the City by Vampire Weekend, where they talked for a while until Justine had to leave to drive back home. It was a good night. February 9th, 2019. The day Justine and William became official. It was a rainy day in Gainesville and while William was driving, Justine had asked what to call their relationship as they were on the way to eat with some friends and everyone was asking who the secret guy was Justine was bringing along. It was that conversation then that they agreed to make their relationship official. It was a fun, exciting and wonderful start to what would blossom to be a deep and loving relationship. Fast forward to December, 2020. Deep in the middle of the COVID pandemic, both Justine and William took a leap of faith and decided to move in together while moving away from their families to Charlotte, NC to where they live today. This would be a key moment in their lives, as this would plant a seed for many opportunities and friendships that have come as a result. They couldn’t be happier with how everything has panned out. During a long European summer trip in 2024, William bent the knee and proposed to Justine on a balcony of their AirBnB in Lake Como, Italy after eating a delicious home-made meal that William had just prepared. As the sun was setting, Justine said yes and now their story is just beginning.