We met playing sand volleyball at VBGB in Charlotte, NC on June 28, 2018. We had both just starting playing volleyball for the first time in that past year and quickly fell in love with the game. We were playing against each other in a 6 v. 6 rec league and met for the first time across the net on court 5. Stefanie's team won, of course ;) We had our first date the next night in The French Quarter in uptown Charlotte and ended the night dancing in the alleyway together playing oldies music on our phone. Our competitive selves quickly decided it was better to play on the same team and not be opponents, and that is when we became Team Big Tree Fall Hard (a great reference from the movie Wedding Crashers for those of you who don't get it, and the basis for our wedding hashtag #stefandjpfallhard). Before we knew it we fell in love with volleyball and fell in love with each other, and the rest is history :)

Thursday night when I got home from work, JP told me to pack a bag and we were leaving town the next night when I got off work, wouldn’t tell me where we were going! Found out when we got to our gate at the airport he was surprising me with a trip to California for the weekend! We went to Manhattan Beach for my 30th birthday in 2019 and had the best time, found a spot we both loved so much. We visited the area a few times after that and found an amazing spot to stay whenever we visited in Hermosa Beach one block off the beach through a connection with his brother. We both woke up before the sunrise (jet lag) and had coffee on the rooftop porch overlooking the beach and California hillside and watched the most beautiful sunrise together. He had planned to propose that evening over a California sunset (he knows they are my absolute favorite thing), but California decided to show off and the sunrise was extraordinary that morning so he took advantage of a beautiful and perfect moment and got down on one knee and proposed ❤️