Meet us at the shore!

Brad and Leah both attended Embry-Riddle where they had classes and mutual friends. It wasn't until they were both in NYC one fateful weekend that their love story began. Leah had started her first week at Jetblue and ready to live her Carrie Bradshaw-life in Manhattan and Brad was in the city taking the Air Traffic entrance exam. A mutual friend, who also worked at Jetblue, wanted to see both Leah and Brad and they all decided to meet at a bar in Queens. About an hour in their mutual friend said he had to go home to sleep since he had an early 5am shift so Brad and Leah decided to continue enjoying the night. Brad and Leah explored the city together and ended their night at the base of the Empire State Building. Brad and Leah would then start dating long distance, swapping weekend visits. Leah to south Jersey and Brad to NYC. Then it became even longer distance when Brad moved to Oklahoma City for the air traffic academy and then to Houston for his first assignment. Thank god for flight benefits. Eventually, they decided it was time for Leah to move to Houston and that's where things really took off. They moved in together, adopted their dog, Freddie, together, and made life-long friends in Houston together. They really weathered a few storms- multiple 100-year storms, Hurricane Harvey, and unprecedented Texas freezes. After six years of living in Houston it was time to move back to the east coast- they settled in Arlington, VA. Around Christmas 2023, Brad decided it was time to make it official and reached out to a friend's sister to design Leah's engagement ring. Brad secretly had facetime calls and traveled back to where it all began, NYC, to design the ring. The finished ring then made it's way down to VA with their friend's family and the hand-off was made to Brad- secret agent style ;) Brad surprised Leah with a 10-year anniversary trip to the Inn at Perry Cabin in St. Michael's, MD where everything that could go wrong almost did go wrong. At check-in on Thursday, the concierge asked if they were celebrating anything and Leah replied, "Our 10 year dating anniversary," as Brad shot darts out of nervousness. Brad had booked a sailing charter to propose but the closer they got to the date the forecast worsened. Brad quickly changed the date from Friday to Saturday, which had slightly less rain in the forecast. Prior to the rescheduled Saturday sailing, the Inn left desserts, champagne, and notes of congratulations in their room and brought out at meals and Leah thought, "Wow, they're really happy we've been dating for 10 years!" as Brad tried to play it cool. Finally, the slightly rainy Saturday rolled around and Brad and Leah boarded the Stargazer for their charter as the clouds clear away. Brad had coordinated with the Captain that the cover story would be that Brad and Leah wanted some pictures taken with Brad's camera on the bow of the sailboat. Brad got down on one knee and asked Leah to marry him and she said yes! They enjoyed the rest of the charter with a champagne toast as Brad explained how this was months in the making and how many times the Inn almost blew his cover. As they pulled into the dock the rain started again, they got to enjoy some of the most beautiful sunshine during their engagement sail. Although Brad was able to move the sailing charter from Friday to Saturday, he was unable to change their Friday night dinner (engagement) reservation so Brad took Leah to a St. Michaels local hole-in-the-wall crab restaurant that floods when it rains and it was the most perfectly imperfect dinner to close out the day of their engagement. Along the way there have been so many family and friends who have supported us and we cannot wait to celebrate with each and every one of you!