We’re getting married!

Michael's story: This all started with my brother’s wedding. I was obviously the clear shot to be his best man (kidding, kind of). I also had no preconceived intentions of finding my next girlfriend at his wedding. I genuinely just wanted to crush the best man speech (which I heard made a couple people’s top 10 🥳). Nevertheless, throughout the night I had two friends walk up to me and mention Vanessa had moved back to Atlanta. Oh! And she happened to be single. My first thought was thanks for the heads up, but we don’t really know each other. However, when the second walked up with the same message and adamance that they had no idea the other friend had made mention of it as well, it got me thinking. Why not! I figured if an opening popped up then I’d take the shot. If not then I’d just enjoy my night all the same. Well, the only opening that arrived was a slow dance. And I don’t know everyone else’s opinion, but randomly walking up to a girl you hardly know, to ask her as a first interaction to slow dance just comes across a bit extra to me. So the night ended without much more than a hello. Fast forward to a few days later and some “encouragement” from my brother. He sends me her number and tells me to give her a call, cause that shows true chivalry. Long story short I made the call. She didn’t pick up. What do I do? What any logical person would do, I guess? And so I left one long awkward ass voicemail. Had no idea until that point that I get incredibly formal and awkward when nervous and on the spot, but I guess you learn something new everyday. Next I waited for a response. And finally I got one later that evening. “Hey, at the beach with my family. I’ll give you a call back in a bit.” If that’s not implicating a no, I don’t know what is. She eventually gave me a call back and said she’d be happy to go to dinner with me, but boy did she really make me sweat for that answer. And that’s how this whole thing started… Although apparently, going on in the background, she was basically running her own female background check/investigation on me before I got that yes, but I’ll let Vanessa tell her own side of the story. Vanessa's story: It all started with a wedding of a dear friend (Brian Dollarhide). It was Summer 2020 that I moved back to the Atlanta area due wonderful covid and finishing graduate school. I had recently been getting back into the dating world, but did not really mention much of anything to anyone. I attended Brian and Kieran's wedding in July with some girlfriends. At that wedding, I of course encountered Brian, as well as several other friends who I had not seen in a while. I shared with many that I had moved back to the Atlanta area; however, I never thought that information would soon be shared so quickly with others...At the wedding I saw Michael (we maybe at most said "hey"). Aside from that we had no other interactions that evening. It wasn't until a few weeks later that I got a call from a random number while on vacation with my family. The number had called while we were playing a board game, so I naturally didn't answer. My thought was, if they really need something, they'll leave a voicemail. To my surprise they did and guess who it was on the very formal/sweet voicemail... Michael Dollarhide. His voicemail was asking me on a date! I was caught off guard by the voicemail because we had not really interacted much at his brother's wedding. I shot him a quick text letting him know I would call him back once family game night was finished. Before calling him back, I called/texted a few friends to get some insight on him, as well as hear their thoughts on going on a date with him. No one had anything negative to say and said I should go if I was interested. I took their advice thinking, "why not go, it could be fun"! Fast forward to the first date at Barcelona Wine Bar, I showed up 30 minutes late due to traffic, in loungewear (that's another story) and he still asked me on a second date :)