We're getting married!

There weren’t a ton of things folks were allowed to do on December 16th, 2020. We were, after all, living the wake of a global pandemic (the scariest early months of which, at least). Luckily for two particular fans of Taylor Swift (albeit to varying degrees), doors were beginning to open, people were beginning to congregate, life was bearing some semblance of what so many of us had for so long unappreciated. The lights were coming back on. And not just any lights. This love story begins with a specific set of lights that only emerge for a handful of weeks every year, like the salmon of San Juan Capistrano swimming upstream. These of course are the Christmas lights of Naples Island in Long Beach, CA. Naples of course is famous for its canals and walkways that, during the winter holiday season, would make it seem as if Santa Claus had seen enough snow for one (infinite) lifetime and opted to relocate his arctic toy-making operation to a more seasonally pleasant latitude. Anyway, back to the story. On December 16th, 2020, two people who by all accounts were pretty much strangers and whose correspondence had only occurred via a dating app and text messaging over the course of a few weeks. These two future lovebirds (Will and Ali, in case you weren’t paying attention) agreed to meet up for their first date in Naples to take a walk and look at the Christmas lights. It was on this night that Will found out that one woman’s smile could outshine an entire island’s worth of holiday lights. Needless to say, Christmas came early for these two. Flash forward four years or so later, the two lovers go on vacation. Ali had the brilliant idea to book a photographer in Paris who had access to a rooftop with an amazing view of the Eiffel Tower. Will totally loved the idea and with absolutely zero reluctance agreed to let some French person take pictures of him for over and hour (mostly because Ali already booked it). Little did Ali know, her future husband had something up his sleeve. A diamond ring. On June 18th, 2024 he got down on one knee, expressed his love to Ali, and opened a small box containing a diamond ring. Naturally, he opened the box upside down but luckily didn’t drop the ring off the roof of a building. The proposal was beautiful. Through tears of joy, Ali of course said “Thank You” and eventually “Yes” (after being reminded of the usual protocol for these kinds of things). Three days later she found herself with him in an ambulance on the way to a weird Italian hospital. They lived happily ever after.