wedding time!

We met online and almost didn't make it to a second date after Jess vetoed the first location (it was a loud, crowded party bar where her coworkers hung out) and then Rorie barely gave her a hug at the end (he swears he was just being a gentleman). Luckily, we made it to that second date and beyond, falling in love in a manner similar to our frequent commutes between Astoria and FiDi - it felt like it took forever, but before you know it you're there. It moved fast after that. While watching football in a bar in Astoria we way-too-casually decided to move in together. We eventually figured out that after a decade (and more, for Jess) in NYC we both wanted to leave the city and find somewhere new to settle down. But if we're doing that, then why not just travel...indefinitely? So we quit our jobs, sold all our belongings and packed everything that was left into a minivan to road trip (through a hurricane, no less) to Austin, Texas!

Like most normal romances, we spent our second year together 24/7, living like nomads while backpacking around the world using every questionable form of transport imaginable. From extreme language barriers in China to the lush, relaxing beaches in Bali and Greece - and every crazy, sketchy adventure in between (we're looking at you, India) - our 9 months in Asia, the Middle East and Europe proved that we were great partners capable of overcoming anything together...even when a 12 hour overnight bus ride in Vietnam had us wanting to kill each other. After returning to the U.S. we began the whirlwind process of re-acclimating to the first world again and figuring out our lives as semi-responsible adults...but not too hastily. To ease into life stateside we took a prolonged road trip from Seattle to Austin in Jess's high school car that involved camping in eight different (phenomenally gorgeous and unique) national parks. Finally in Austin, we're actually becoming adults again (we promise) and laying the foundation for the rest of our lives together. For more on our international travels, check out our blog: www.ourjauntabroad.com

After asking Jess's parents for their blessing before departing for the trip, Rorie then had 4 months to figure out how to buy a wedding ring and propose. When Jess headed solo to a yoga retreat in Thailand, Rorie bought her a gorgeous, custom-designed (by him, no less) star ruby ring from a not-sketchy jeweler in Bangkok...then stashed the ring in his backpack for a month. From the back of a pickup truck in Bagan, Myanmar, Rorie managed to surprise Jess with a fancy hotel as a "birthday present". A sunrise hot air balloon ride over the 2,500 temples of Bagan was planned as a shared Valentine's Day present, and we even managed to get in the air after multiple Herculean feats (him: surviving a devastating stomach bug) (them: not being in the balloon that caught on fire that morning). While thousands of feet in the air, with a sunrise in the background, Rorie awkwardly knelt on a bench in their balloon compartment to ask his best friend and favorite person in the galaxy to spend her life with him. She never saw it coming. She said yes. For the full story, including a video of the proposal, see: http://ourjauntabroad.com/2018/02/she-said-yes-editors-note-i-said-yes/