Mel always likes to keep this story more wholesome and say "I was introduced to Garrett by a friend from church", which technically is not wrong, she just likes to leave out the part that it was a tacky Christmas bar crawl that she invited her to ha! It was Saturday, 12/14/19 to be exact - and Mel while living with her two roomies at the time had already gone out Friday night so she was really not up for going out that Saturday. Luckily her roommate, Leigha, encouraged her to go since her friend was already expecting her. Mel kept making excuses like she didn't have a Christmas sweater, so of course Leigha runs to her room and grabs her one she had just bought that said "Nice" and when you rubbed it, it said "Naughty". They had a plan that if Mel was really tired and not feeling it after a couple hours that she would text Leigha to help her and they would say she got locked out so Mel needed to leave to let her in the house. Little did she know she would be meeting the love of her life and not needing to be bailed out. Mike, Garrett's best friend and now best man had also invited him to the bar crawl - maybe with a plan in mind! ;) Once they were introduced, they slowly warmed up with conversations about Charlottesville (the city where Mel grew up and where Garrett was living then), not enjoying dating apps and all the things they had in common. They pretty much talked all night long and from that day their love story began. From the beginning it felt special, they were comfortable with each other almost instantly and as the years have passed and their love matured, they feel so very blessed that they were both invited to this bar crawl - they truly found love in the most unexpected place.