In all my years eating oysters (and it's been many years of eating many oysters), I've only found one pea crab. Unless you're in the business of eating a lot of oysters like I am, this may mean nothing to you. But if you are in the business of eating oysters, or you just really like superstitions, then you know exactly what I mean: Finding a pea crab in your oyster is good luck. Who am I to turn down a bit of good luck? So on October 17, 2021, while my friend, Alyssa, looked on in horror, I ate that oyster, pea crab and all. You may be wondering what pea crabs and oysters and good luck have to do with this wedding. Well, only a few weeks before, I had started to hang out with this guy. The guy in question had gone to NC State with all of my friends, but I didn't really know him then. (Spoiler alert: The guy is Stephen.) It wasn't until I moved back to Raleigh after graduating college that we spent any real, meaningful time together. Despite the fact we barely knew each other, a night out with friends and good champagne compelled me to ask him if he and his parents would come to a football game with me the following day. This objectively insane request resulted in one of the best nights of my life. During that game, we talked about anything and everything – NC State football, Star Wars, pelvic floor therapy (don’t ask). I got to know his wonderful and funny parents. I had never met someone so present and so intrinsically kind. Someone that clearly cared so well for the people around him. When they dropped me off that night, I had this feeling I couldn’t shake, this feeling that my life was about to change drastically. And so a few weeks after the football game, when I found myself face-to-face with that pea crab oyster, I ate it. Then, I summoned every bit of good luck it had to offer and texted Stephen how I felt. Luckily, he felt the same way. Other things have happened since then: falling in love, adopting a dog, moving in together, getting engaged. Promotions, grad school, and really hard, long days. One thing has stayed steady in my otherwise chaotic, ever-changing life, and that's Stephen. He has remained the caring, funny, strong man that I got to know at that football game. My hope is that you will be able to feel our love for each other during our wedding weekend in the same way that I feel it every day. I can't wait to see you there. All my love, Madison