I remember the day I met Kristine very well. It was a Friday in late November of 2015. About halfway through my 2nd year of medical school, I had just sat my final exam before the Thanksgiving holiday. It was a habit of mine to take small trips after big tests to unwind a bit. On this particular occasion, I had planned to visit one of my good friends in Miami Florida. I was living with several other medical students at the time and they like me were from out of state. They had planned on hosting a “Friends Giving” party that evening and convinced me to stick around a bit to a least eat before getting on my flight. I am glad that I did because it was at that party where I ended up meeting Kristine. I was sitting on the couch talking with a few of my friends when she walked in. She was wearing a white sweater and a brown suede skirt with brown leather boots. I remember seeing her walking through the door and thinking to myself that she was beautiful. I made a point of watching her to see what she had brought to the potluck event. It was cornbread, and I loved cornbread, so I budged my way into the impromptu buffet line that was forming around the island in our kitchen. After establishing myself next to her in line I made sure to publicly exclaim how good the cornbread was. My voice tends to carry well, and Kristine took the bait. She turned to me and mentioned that it was her who had crafted the cornbread. That was all the window that I needed to strike up a conversation. For the remainder of the evening, her and I engaged in great conversation which ultimately lead to me missing my flight to Miami. Luckily, I was able to get to the airport in time to catch one of the later flights out and had a fantastic weekend in Miami but as soon as I got home I hunted Kristine down on Facebook and asked if she would like to join me for drinks later that week. She said yes, and we have been almost inseparable since.

When Jake returned from his now-famous Miami trip, he found me on Facebook and asked me “out for drinks”. By that Friday, I was still debating with my bridesmaid Stephanie if “out for drinks” qualified as a date. Thankfully, Jake didn’t leave me wondering for too long after he picked me up when he took a wrong turn and joked about getting lost on the first date. Okay… so it’s a date. Despite the wrong turn, we made our way to Libertine in Uptown. Over drinks and appetizers, I was immediately smitten by Jake’s energy, how easy he was to talk to, and how he made me laugh. Though Jake, three years later I can finally say – I lied when I told you I liked that steak tartare! We ended the night with some salsa dancing at Loring, where Jake was kind enough not to wince every time I stepped on his feet in my boots that were NOT meant for salsa dancing. We followed that date with almost a dozen more in the next few weeks. I still don’t know how we both managed to pass our finals that December, but we both knew it was worth it. When I announced to my family just two weeks after our first date that I knew was going to marry Jake, my dad was the only one who managed to keep a straight face. Three years later, we are wondering where the time has gone, but we are as excited as ever to be making it official!