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June 12, 2019
La Romana, Dominican Republic
#siempreshields

Ray & Mel

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Green palmGreen palm

Raymond Shields

and

Melanee McKenzie

#siempreshields

June 12, 2019

La Romana, Dominican Republic

Our Story

We met on a cruise! Rays mom, Christine, had arranged a large group of people to go on the Oasis of the Seas, the newest cruise ship at the time. My mom and I were invited by Gina and Rosie, our favorite travel buddies. After checking in and grabbing a few drinks, Gina introduced me to her cousin, Raymond. I thought he was an arrogant dud and he thought I was an obnoxious brat. Apparently, everyone in our travel group knew that there was *something there* between us, but we truthfully couldn't stand each other. When the trip was over, we went our separate ways with no intention to keep in touch. We reconnected a year later on social media. Ray asked me to hang out one day, but I denied because I was seeing someone. The following week, I ended it with my then-boyfriend and encouraged Ray to try again. We had crab cakes at G&M for our first date. We started an exciting relationship, but I was in school and living in Towson and he was busy being the Front Office Manager of the Hilton BWI. One day, we got into a fight and never spoke again. About a year and a half later, I got a friend request on Facebook from my co-worker. His profile picture was of him and Ray! Of course, it was a conversation starter. Rob said to me, "You and Ray used to date?!" To which I jokingly responded, "Well technically we're still dating since we never really broke up!" (I wasn't kidding about that whole "we got into a fight and never spoke again" thing.) The next day, MUCH to my surprise, I woke up to a long message from Ray. We met up for drinks at The Greene Turtle that night. There was an instant, unexplainable connection. After that, we found any excuse to see each other and hung over every single day for almost two weeks. The rest is history! Over the past four years, we’ve traveled, changed careers, moved in together, and added fur babies to our little family. We are so excited for the next chapter of our love story to begin and see what kind of fun awaits as husband and wife!

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