We first met as counselors for a one-week long Vacation Bible School at Holy Family Catholic Church in the 8th grade. Neither of us remembers much about each other from that time, but it’s funny that there’s a picture to prove it. Three years later, we met again in homeroom on the first day of 11th grade (thank goodness our last names are close together in the alphabet so we ended up in the same class!). We sat near each other and started talking every day. On Sarah's 16th birthday, she missed homeroom to go to the DMV to get her driver’s license. Joe got up the courage to message her happy birthday (with a Ryan Gosling meme) and that he missed her that day in class.

On Halloween 2014, mutual friends persuaded Joe to come over and hang out at Sarah's house to watch a movie. Joe walked in to complete chaos—our family friend Paul answered the door dressed as Gene Simmons from KISS (complete with platform heels and face makeup), and Joe met Sarah's parents, six younger siblings, and friends. Despite the craziness, we hit it off. We started texting every day and flirting during homeroom. When Joe went to go visit his dad for Thanksgiving, he called Sarah before he got on the plane just to say he’d miss her, and we talked on the phone for hours while he was gone. We agreed that we would go to the Nolensville Christmas Tree Lighting together when he got home. On December 2, 2014, we did just that. Joe’s sister Sara tagged along with us, and we had the best time strolling around, looking at lights, and enjoying each other’s company. We dropped Sara off at his house, and as Joe drove Sarah home, he asked Sarah if she'd be his girlfriend. She said yes, and when we arrived at Sarah's house, he tried to kiss her in the driveway and she got scared, so she gave him the tiniest peck before running inside!

The years since December 2, 2014 have been a blur of happiness and togetherness—we’ve been pretty much inseparable since that day. We’ve enjoyed Joe’s JROTC military ball; two proms; college touring; high school graduation and a joint graduation party; many, many Alabama football games; trips to New Mexico, Florida, Maui, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, Seattle, France, Italy, Spain, and England; adopting a dog together; each of our college graduations; Sarah's law school experience and Joe’s career at BlackRock; and even quarantining in Joe’s apartment in Atlanta together during the pandemic.

After an utterly quarantined 2020, we flew (masked, with negative COVID tests in hand!) to Maui to visit Sarah's family for the holidays after a long year without a visit. On December 21, Joe got down on one knee during a “family photoshoot for Sarah's family’s New Year card” – which turned out to be the greatest cover story of all time for a surprise proposal. Although we had talked extensively about getting engaged, Joe really pulled a surprise on Sarah and she was completely shocked! We can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives together, and hope you'll be able to join us on the day we finally become husband and wife.