Heck yes we do! We're so excited to celebrate our big day with you.

You are the only people in the world that will know of this marriage in advance. Please refrain from posting anything about the couples engagement or wedding until after the Bride and Groom have said I do. We’ve decided that we want to post a wedding photo as that first post/annoucement, can you imagine the shock? Please help us maintain our privacy and our surprise.

Ray and Jay grew up very parallel to one another and yet somehow didn’t meet until she was Senior and he was Junior in high school. They lived less than 2 miles from each other, went to both Valrico Elementary and Mann Middle School at the same time, and even had some overlapping High School friends. Fall 2005: Ray and Jay met at their after-school job at Publix. They were in different high schools. Jay as the cashier and Ray was the bagger. They were just friends….until Jay moved away in 2008 to Gainesville (even though Jay had a crush on Ray, he says he didn’t know she swears HE KNEW IT!) Spring 2009: Jay was sitting relaxing on day on her day off in Spring 2009 when she got a call from an unknown 813 number. She answered and it was Ray, shocked she hung up the phone and had someone else call him to let him know she was no contact until graduation in a couple months. Ray waited until June 2009 to try again and had breakfast with Jay on the benches of Lake Weeks. Ray tried to flirt, and Jay shot him down. So it went, Ray would call Jay for coffee and catching up every couple of months, until… May 2013: When Jay decided to call Ray for coffee. They dated for 5 months; they ended things in October. If you ask either one you’ll get a different answer, but the they will both agree the long and short of it was they weren’t at the same place at the time. They remained friends just as before, in 2014 Jay moved to Orlando for work and Ray helped her put everything on the truck and carried things up to a 3-story walk up. Over time they tried to stay friends, until Jay became serious in another relationship and Ray moved all the way to Tennessee. Fall 2019: Ray moved back to Florida and Jay called off her relationship, but neither knew what was up with the other. November 2019: Ray was making pasteles with the family when Elvin (Perez family friend) asked him how Jay was doing. Ray responded that Jay had gotten married, so he didn’t know. Ariana (Ray’s sister) informed him that actually Jay had called off the wedding and was single. December 2019: On Jay’s birthday, she got a message from Ray saying happy birthday and inviting her coffee. Jay left him on read over a month. January 2020: Just before Ray’s birthday he received a message that Jay wasn’t ready to talk and would reach out eventually. That lasted another month. March 2020: Covid hit the week they began talking again. They sat 6 feet apart in the backyard talking… then went for social distanced walks, and Ray would come visit her in the driveway of Jay's grandmother house , while Jay was caring for her during the pandemic. 2020-now: A love story for the ages....