Katherine Mackenzie was born and raised outside of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, well known for its food (crawfish!!), domesticated pets (alligators), and public transportation (airboats - yay!). Paul Michael was born and raised in Hockessin, Delaware, home of the Fighting Blue Hens (yep - chickens), a single Wayne's World reference ("Hi, I'm in Delaware."), and possibly a screen door factory. As we grew older, our loving families encouraged us to explore the world outside of these cosmopolitan metropolises (... or is it metropoli?). Our first steps away weren't far. Katie studied Biological Engineering at LSU, where she strengthened her love of college football and baseball - Geaux Tigers! (Spoken now with our best Coach O. impressions.) Paul studied Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He enthusiastically supported the college lacrosse team, whose mascot is the Blue Jay, which he likes to say is "pound for pound, the fiercest songbird on the planet!" We continued our education at LSU Medical School (Geaux Tigers!) and the University of Michigan engineering graduate school (Go Blue!) respectively. A few steps later, we found ourselves in Memphis, Tennessee - Katie as a pediatrician at LeBonheur Children's Hospital and Paul as an engineer at an orthopaedic company called Wright Medical Technology. Through all of that time, the one thing that we both had in common was the beautiful game - soccer!

Our story began one night at a coed indoor soccer league, thanks to Paul's extremely outgoing friend Lyndsay and her cute son Felix. Coincidentally, just days after the initial introduction and exchange of phone numbers, Katie took a trip to Michigan to see her new niece Louisa (and her parents) while Paul had a conference in Louisiana (both jealous of the other's destination). After a week of getting to know each other, we couldn't wait for our first date which we scheduled for the first day we were both back in town. Paul showed up at Katie's door with two presents, flowers and a dog toy for her black lab Louie, with the instruction that she could pick who got what (she picked the flowers). We had lobster rolls for dinner at Slider Inn, because this northerner and southerner needed to settle a debate - are crawfish tiny lobsters or are lobsters giant crawfish? While the debate continues, we both agreed that the lobsters were amazing and so was the date. An adventurous year followed that first night, with trips to Italy and Germany, East Coast, Costa Rica, Michigan, and Louisiana. We celebrated our first anniversary of dating with a delicious meal at Flight, one of our favorite restaurants in Memphis. Afterwards, Paul gave Katie her gift - a photo book of our first year together. The final page of that book contained a card with a ring on it. While Katie read the card, Paul dropped to one knee (with Louie trying to sneak a kiss). He said this had been the happiest year of his life and then he asked Katherine Mackenzie Meche to be his wife. Obviously you know her answer :) We're so happy that you'll be able to be a part of our story by joining us for our wedding. We can't tell you how much this means to us. Thank you so much for coming! We can't wait to see you!