Welcome to the Celebration of

On a May Friday night in 2019, my best friend Pamela (who is also my Maid of Honor) and I decided to bar hop on the famous Washington Avenue in Houston. At the beginning of the night, we went to the first bar, but it wasn’t great, so we decided to move on to the second one – The Handle Bar. After a few hours there with Pam, I went to the bathroom. When I came back, I completely lost sight of her. I decided to stand by the entrance room where I had lost her, hoping I could spot her again. Suddenly, this guy came up to me and said hi! I thought he was cute and had a very charismatic smile. He mentioned that he had lost sight of his friends too, so we decided to chat. We sat at a table in the corner and ended up talking for the next two hours. I still had no idea where Pam was, and Chris found out that his party was leaving, but he decided to stay. We went to the dance floor, and it was the first time I saw his... interesting dance moves (which I love). We stayed there until 2 a.m. when the bar closed, and I finally found my friend. As we were leaving, it started pouring rain in Houston, and I offered to drop him off at his friends' house. One of my favorite memories of that night is when Chris, with his Orange Theory workout obsession, took off his shirt to "protect me from the rain," and I immediately told him to put it back on. It was the first time he witnessed my “sassy personality." Once we got into the car, we waited for the rain to pass. That’s when we discovered our shared passion for Broadway! We blasted Hamilton in the car and sang together. After the rain stopped, I dropped him off at his friends’ place and headed back home. As soon as I got home, we started texting, and he called me back. That turned into a two-hour phone call until 5 a.m., which then led to me meeting him and his friends the next day. From there, we began a long-distance relationship between Houston and New York, and eventually, I moved to Pennsylvania to be closer to him… which, well, led to this wedding. I’ve always been a fan of "meant to be" stories, but I never thought it would happen to me! I’m so happy the universe made our paths cross at that exact moment. Two different countries, two different cities, and it only took one moment, with courage on both ends and faith in our relationship – through countless flights (and a lot of delays), moving to another state in an already different country, and building our life together. But hey, love makes you do crazy things, right? I’ve truly found my best friend and partner for life!

I took a long weekend to visit one of my life long friends, one of my groomsmen Tyler, who had recently moved to Houston. I was living in NYC at the time, and was excited to see his new life and experience Houston for the first time. We spent that Friday hanging out by the pool and planned to go out in the city later that night with his wife Amber, and one of the friends he met while living there. That night I wasn't expecting to meet anyone, and that wasn't even a part of my thought process. I was totally focused on having a great weekend with my buddy. We ended up going to a bar in the city that night called the Handle Bar. Tyler said it was in a really cool area and I was fine to go check it out. After about an hour or so of being at the bar I went to go to the bathroom quick. Upon coming out of the bathroom I was unable to find Tyler and his friends. As I was looking for them someone caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. A beautiful woman was standing to my right, by herself, with what seemed like a bright light glowing down on her. The light very well may have been the bar sign she was standing under but regardless she shined with light when I first saw her. It was at this moment where I had an internal conversation with myself for about 15 seconds; the outcome of this conversation would change my life forever. While standing there after noticing her I thought to myself, should I approach her and say hello? Part of me thought, “well, I’m here this weekend to see my friend, let me keep looking for them. She probably wouldn’t want to talk to me anyway, so should I really go up there and bother her”. The other part of me thought, “she is really cute, it wouldn’t hurt to go just say hello”. In a split second my body took over and I walked in her direction, and said hello. We spent the next 30 minutes talking before I even saw my friends again. They said that they were leaving and going to another bar and I decided that I was really enjoying my time with Patricia and wanted to stay with her that night. We spent the rest of that night dancing, and getting to know each other. When the bar closed we left only to realize that it was a total downpour outside. We had to walk in the rain to her car and Patricia didn’t have an umbrella. So being the chivalrous man I am, I made the selfless choice to take my shirt off to use as a makeshift umbrella to keep her dry. She claims I was trying to show off my six pack, but all I wanted to ensure the beautiful woman I just met remained dry! When we got to her car the rain was coming down so hard that we couldn’t even drive. So we took that opportunity to get to know each other even more. I asked Patricia to put on some music while we waited and if she liked any Broadway. To my happy surprise she put on Hamilton and we spent time singing together until the rain stopped. That night she dropped me off at Tyler’s apartment and we said goodbye not knowing if we’d ever talk or even see eachother again. I spent some time catching up with my Tyler to tell him about my night. Tyler went to bed and I sat on his couch texting Patricia. It was past 2am but I was so exited to have met her, and wanted to get to know her more. So I called her and we spent the next few hours talking and both agreed we’d like to see each-other again. The rest my friends is history! We spent that Saturday together. Then we spent the next 9 months flying back and forth from NYC to Houston to see eachother. Then, right before the pandemic, she moved to Pennsylvania, we moved in together in 2021, and became the proud parents of a beautiful Black Lab named Roy. I am so grateful that the stars aligned and put us both in Houston, at the Handle Bar, under the same bar sign. I love you Patricia and can’t wait to be with you forever. From the moment we met I knew this love, our love, is what I always wanted.