Our story started long before either of us even realized it. When we were kids, Tori lived just a few houses down from Roland’s uncle in Grapevine, Texas. We weren’t exactly close back then. Tori remembers it, Roland… not so much. Growing up, we almost crossed paths countless times through family gatherings, summer trips, and expeditions to Pecan Park. Tori and her brother Sam were best friends with Roland’s cousin Reid, deepening the roots that would one day flourish into one unified family. Somehow, we were always around each other, just never actually together... At least, according to Roland. In fact, one of Tori’s earliest memories of Roland is him making a questionable "first" impression by telling her she looked like she was from Shreveport. To this day, we’re still not sure what that meant—or why he said it. Fast forward to summer 2020, when Roland came to Dallas to visit Reid after he moved back home. That’s when everything started to change. We became real friends, and over the next year, that friendship slowly turned into something more. By late 2021, the timing was finally right. We took turns visiting each other, from Roland's flights every month to Tori's road trips with Steve every couple of weeks. Roland surprised Tori for her birthday in January 2022, moved to Texas the next month, and not long after that—we were living together. No U-Haul necessary. Since then, life has moved pretty fast in all the best ways. Roland stepped into his role as a stepdad to Ellie (who calls him “Chee,” because “Cheraw” was apparently too ambitious at the time), and together we’ve built a life that’s full of love, laughter, and lots of mozzarella sticks. Along the way, we’ve learned how to “adult” together. We’ve picked out apartments, adopted our dog Abbie so Cash would have a friend, fended off predatory salesmen while buying our cars because no, we do not need the extended warranty, and bought our first home together in April 2025. In August 2025, Roland proposed in New Orleans—his hometown and a city that means a lot to us and our story. About a month later, we found out we were expecting our first daughter together… we’ll let you do the math on that one. By the time of the wedding, our daughter Emory will already be here, making this next chapter even more special and a lot louder and more sleep-deprived. Looking back, it really does feel like we were always just one step away from each other—like everything had to happen exactly the way it did for us to end up here. Our invisible string finally revealed itself, and our love has been able to fully bloom. Aint it funny how things work out?