We're getting married!

Google Photos Album (reach out to Carter, Naomi, or Ella Helmuth for the link to join and add photos): https://www.zola.com/wedding/naomiandcarter2023 Professional Photos from Breahna Taylor - all photos should be uploaded by the week of 6/19/2023! https://breahnataylorphotography.pixieset.com/carternaomi/ All photo booth photos: https://boothpics.com/VIVM

Thank you for visiting our wedding page! We could not be more thrilled to see and celebrate with all of you, especially after so much time apart. Our story begins in September 2015. Carter was taking a freshman seminar at Tulane titled "The Myths and Realities of New Orleans Food and Drink" - doesn't that sound like it was handmade for him? The final assignment involved visiting several restaurants and writing about them (you can actually see the project at butter-and-tabasco.tumblr.com if you promise not to judge my 18-year-old self! -Carter). This gave Carter a perfect excuse to ask Naomi on a date to the High Hat Cafe on Freret Street, and the rest is history! After two years of Carter continuing to teach Naomi about southern cooking, we both graduated, Carter with his undergraduate degree in Public Health, and Naomi with her master's degree in Behavioral Health. As we both tried to figure out our next steps, we realized that we wanted to step in the same direction. Our first home together was in New Hampshire, where Naomi began her first job in community mental health and Carter in public health consulting. We already knew that we loved doing so many things together, like hiking, playing and listening to music, playing tennis, and trying new restaurants. However, it was in the mountains of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine that we realized we shared another interest (more like obsession?): skiing. Needless to say, we went almost every weekend from Thanksgiving to Easter that year. The following May, we said goodbye to our workplaces and packed all of our belongings into a storage container. Taking only a carry-on suitcase each, we spent over 2 months traveling to Israel, Thailand, Vietnam, California, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. That August, we finally landed in St. Louis where Carter began his studies at Washington University School of Medicine and Naomi began working at Independence Center, a psychosocial rehabilitation program under the Clubhouse model for adults with severe mental illness. Carter will graduate in May of 2023, but we do not know where we will be going next! He is applying to OB/GYN residencies across the country and will find out where he "matches" in mid-March. He is incredibly grateful to Naomi for adventuring to so many new places with him and for being so flexible, excited, and supportive. Meanwhile Naomi quite enjoys the nomad life!

We were being lazy one Sunday morning, drinking coffee and whimsically daydreaming about the future. We began to talk about wedding dates that would fit in with Carter's medical school schedule. We casually realized that spring of his 4th year would probably be best, as he would have plenty of time off before starting residency that summer. We then looked at each other for a second and simultaneously said: "Wait, are we engaged now??" That was in February 2020. Within a couple of weeks, Carter found a ring he loved. Naomi, however, was having more trouble. Anyone who knows her knows that most typical engagement rings are not her style! After weeks of scouring the internet, she found a tiny handful of options, but she wanted to decide with her sister Hannah after we told our families about the engagement. One really caught her eye, however. With Naomi still on the hunt for a ring, we decided to "flip the script" somewhat and make the announcement to our families with Carter's ring alone. We had planned a joint ski trip with both the Hollands and Scotts to Park City, Utah, and we planned on surprising everyone with the announcement there. That is, until we had to cancel the trip just weeks before because of a rapidly-progressing global pandemic... What were we going to do now?! Even before the trip was canceled, Carter did some research into the company that made the ring Naomi had her eye on. To his complete surprise, he learned that the one ring on the entire internet that Naomi truly loved was made by a very small jeweler in Tel Aviv that employed none other than Naomi's cousin! Carter began an elaborate scheme with a whole team: Hannah, Naomi's cousin Sarah, Carter's classmate Kristin, and Kristin's mother Diane, who signed for the DHL package from Israel while Carter was working in the hospital. You can imagine how disappointed he was when the Park City trip was canceled, but he was lucky in other ways: Sarah told him that if he had ordered the ring even one week later, they probably would not have been able to ship it to him due to COVID-related global supply chain disruption! He secretly stashed the ring, waiting for the right moment. We were trying to find the right time to tell our friends and family, but we were in deep denial that we'd probably have to tell everyone over Zoom. One Friday night - April 10, 2020 - we were on FaceTime with our dear friends Sam and Annie. Admittedly, we had all enjoyed a few glasses of wine. (We all remember those early COVID catch-up calls!) We spontaneously agreed we couldn't keep the secret in any longer - we said to ourselves, "wine not?" - and the celebrations began! That night, we joined both of our families on a big group call with everyone to celebrate. In Carter's excitement (and certainly not because of the wine...), he initially wasn't even thinking about Naomi's ring - that is, until he got a prompting text from Hannah! Once he returned, he dropped to one knee with both of our families in (virtual) attendance, to the surprise of everyone except Carter and Hannah. We spent the next several days calling and telling many of our family and friends. Fortunately, most people were bored quarantining at home, which provided us with ample time for laughter, smiles, happy tears, and re-connecting in a time that otherwise felt very dark, frightening, and uncertain. COVID may have messed up our proposal plans, but even worse, it has prohibited us from seeing so many of you. Because of that, we feel that much more grateful and excited to see all of you, and can't wait to give you all real, in-person hugs to continue the celebration! •