Avril Lavigne once said, “He was a boy. She was a girl. Can I make it any more obvious?” While I haven’t ever seen Paul on a skateboard, and our song would have been more like ‘He was an operator. She did chemistry. What more can I..say?..see?’ (it’s a work in progress), our love story was still as magical even though it started out way less catchy. Paul and I met in a MilliporeSigma manufacturing office at the end of 2019 in downtown St. Louis, which is crazy because our paths seemed to have just barely crossed multiple times throughout our lives. Growing up 45 minutes apart and being similar in age, we’ve been to the same sporting events, both attended SIUe at the same time, knew some of the same people, and even worked two doors down in a strip mall from each other during college. Whether you believe in divine intervention or not, the universe wasn’t ready for us to meet until we did, and I’m glad we did because that’s when the fun started. Even though we met at the end of 2019, we didn’t officially start dating until about a year later (aka peak pandemic), so dates looked a little different. There were lots of outdoor adventures: hiking with Scout, our German Shepherd, and Toby, our Tyrannosaurus Beagle; patio hopping at local restaurants and bars; and plenty of trips back to T-Town and Robinson to see family and friends. Living in the city during such a weird time meant we got to know each other pretty fast and in a fun and unique way. With everything shut down, most nights and days were spent at one or the other’s apartment. At the time, Paul lived in South City and I lived in Dogtown, but for that first year, we were basically inseparable. We now joke that it was the year of the very expensive storage units, since one apartment was really just holding stuff while we lived at the other. When our leases ended, we gave up our keys and moved into our Ballwin house, and we’ve been here ever since! Since that first meeting in 2019, we’ve loved, laughed, cried, traveled from the East Coast to the West Coast, napped, tried new things, broken bones, sat in silence, made ER visits, sang at dozens and dozens of concerts, celebrated countless family and friends’ birthdays and accomplishments, grieved over lost family both human and canine, started a lot of fires, failed goals, succeeded in goals, gone to 13(!) weddings, and now it’s time for our own 😊. Thank you so much for sharing in our special time and even more special day. We’re happy you’re here and we love you all.