On a fated Wednesday evening, two cat lovers met at The Family Dog, a local bar near Emily's summer apartment and conveniently on Max's way home from work. Emily was back home in Atlanta for the summer between her second and third year of law school and Max was looking for some good conversation with an Atlanta local. Two beers later and several hours later, both left the date fairly certain that they'd met "their person."

After a particularly long week at work, Emily and Max decided to head out to Athens, Georgia (home to Emily's Alma Mater, the University of Georgia) for a quick getaway. Emily picked the hotel, made dinner reservations at Five and Ten (owned by her favorite Top Chef judge, Hugh Acheson (who also follows her on instagram!) and planned which of her old haunts they needed to hit that evening. Little did Emily know, Max had been holding on to the ring for three months waiting for the perfect time, and he finally decided this was it. He grabbed the ring from his work bench in the garage (a very smart hiding place because only Max and Freddie (the cat) ever venture back there) and they headed off. After cocktails and dinner, the two hopped in a Lyft back downtown and were dropped off at the Arch (a UGA landmark). Max asked to go see the Arch up close and asked Emily to explain some of the traditions and symbolism. He casually pointed to the building behind her and asked what it was. Emily turned around to look at the registrar and when she turned back around Max was on one knee and blurted out a quick "Will you marry me?" then jumped up and said "Ha! Bet you didn't see that one coming!" Completely caught off guard, Emily still is not entirely sure she agreed in that moment, but happily accepted the beautiful ring Max had created using a diamond Emily's mother had given Max at Christmas. To celebrate the two headed to Emily's favorite Athens bar, Walkers, where they celebrated then danced away the night to nineties music at 9ds Bar.

Can one really plan a wedding in five weeks? We are certainly going to try! After being together for so many years, we are just ready to make it official and would love to have some of our closest friends and family with us to celebrate!