We were best friends throughout high school; spent our days constantly laughing, stole each other’s hats (ok, maybe only one of us did this), performed custom birthday raps to make the other smile and even went to prom together. When our THS days came to an end, we spent that summer soaking in our last moments together before living 600 miles apart at school. For us, distance really did make the heart grow fonder once we went to college (University of Delaware then Ohio State for John, Ohio University for Jilly). Just like before, we spent our days making the other laugh, but this time over text, phone calls and facetimes. After about 2 months of screen communication, John took a risk…and a very long bus ride (19 hours but who’s counting), to surprise Jilly at school. John left that trip with a best friend AND girlfriend. College for us consisted of weekend trips, introducing the other to our roommates who became our chosen family, and trying to prove who had the better college…we will let you all be the judge of that. Post college the distance didn’t end for us with John getting a job in Stamford, CT and Jilly moving to New York City. We spent our weekends on Metro North visiting one another, and yes, again trying to convince the other of who lived in the better city…this one’s clear by a landslide. After 7 years of distance, John finally won the fight (we’ll thank COVID for that one), and Jilly moved to Stamford to finally be together fulltime. Jilly negotiated a puppy out of the move (shocker), so within a month we adopted our fur baby, Nala. We now spend our weekends taking Nala girl for walks by the water, tasting new cheese and wine combos on Friday nights and watching any Mafia movie or documentary created. --- Over the last 9 years, we’ve vowed to make each other smile and laugh each day. We can’t wait to do just that and celebrate with you all on 5.21.22! Love, jp & jb