In late 2012, I saw Jim's picture on the web and recognized him from school, though we had not been friends. I reached out to him and it turned out we were both single and dating at the time. We spoke a few times about dating life and how crazy it could get, and of course about growing up in Evans and going to Lake Shore. After agreeing to go out as friends, we got together on January 12, 2013. The plan was to go to Cheeburger Cheeburger, and then see Les Miserables. These are two things you would definitely not do on a “normal” date, because of the messy and somewhat depressing nature of the two. However, this became a normal thing for the two of us as we went forward, because we infrequently do things the way others think we should. From the minute he picked me up he made me laugh. There was less pressure because it wasn't supposed to be a traditional date. It was easy between us from the start so we just relaxed and talked as friends. We ate messy burgers and milkshakes and way too many fries and headed to the movies. At the movies, Jim did try to put his arm around me, but aborted the action halfway through, twice that I saw. When we left the movies, I made sure he knew that I wanted to see him again too and we have pretty much been inseparable since. I really think his sense of humor is what I fell in love with first. He can make me laugh when I am not even in the mood to smile, and he can make anything we do together fun. He is my person. We have realized since that we went to summer day camp together when we were ten at Evans Town Park, and had crossed paths as kids a number of times. I am so glad that we kept crossing paths over the years and that I found my best friend and partner just by sending a message that led us to cross paths again. -Miranda

Planning- We had been going to Bridal Shows since 2015, but we didn't decide we definitely wanted to get married until early in 2017. Or at least we didn't admit it. In May of 2017, Miranda liked one too many of the Bridal Show events on Facebook, and my mother asked us about it, and became one of a few who knew. We knew we wanted to marry in June of 2019, and at one of the Bridal Shows in late 2017, we won engagement portraits and scheduled the session for June of 2018. That put me on a clock. I always knew I wanted to propose on the beach because of Mir's love of the beach, and also because we very well may have met on the beach when we were kids. My mom and I traded ideas every time we had a chance, including when Miranda would leave a room. I decided to propose with the balloons and tulips because I thought it was a non-conventional way to do it, and the day I picked because Miranda kept telling me that I could not propose on my birthday. Once I had the idea , it started to come together. I asked Andie Blair to document since I knew Miranda would want as many pictures of it as possible. Leading up to that day I was still unsure of the date because the weather had been so unpredictable. So I became unusually interested in every weekend forecast and every Friday for about six weeks before, I went down to Evangola State Park to check on how clean the beach was. That day- As soon as my mom and Miranda left for my cousin's baby shower that day, the day began for me. After running around in the morning I met up with Andie and Will Blair (Our photo-bomber), and we ventured down to set everything up. At the end of the path of balloons with our story, was a heart made of tulips in the sand where I knelt down to ask the question. When Mir got there I hid in the bushes and let Andie guide her through the balloons until she got to the tulips. When she turned around I was there knelt down and I asked her for the only birthday present I wanted for my 40th birthday. -Jim