We’re getting married!

Early March 2020 April is finalizing her upcoming backpacking trip with friends getting hyped! Zach is gearing up for a busy work period of onboarding all over the U.S. Our friends Curtis and Laura Lee are having a crawfish boil. April and Zach have never met each other, but know who they are from Instagram and mutual friends at a restaurant we worked at in different points in our lives. They connect fairly early at this crawfish boil, and once they do it becomes their world, with everyone else standing around in it. So as Zach’s listening to this extraordinary girl talk about her next venture He’s wondering the following few days: How could I possibly pursue this? How would either of us ever have the time to know or see each other with the busy lives we’re both individually living? From the very beginning April’s answer has been “We’ll figure it out”. The very next day Zach sets off for his work week, but his trip was cut short as the company notified all employees that we are going into what will be a Quarantine until further notice. Grounded. No travel. No flights. No hotels. *2 years later* Zach has been mesmerized by the heart, love, and spirit in her. She is fiercely passionate, and glows gentleness all at the same time. He has never met a person that he respects more, and loves more than every yesterday. We took full advantage of the whole world slowing down for what feels like just for us. In the chaos around us, in the covid years, we made our own world that we have today. How blessed must two of the busiest people we know be to cross paths on the right year, on the right day, at the right time, for just a brief moment.. We don't take this for granted. We wake up every day grateful for where we are, and where we're headed

We knew we wanted to be engaged this year. Finding each other was undeniable and we knew early on that this was endgame in the world of "do i have a person?".. As Zach's planning just the right proposal that April could possibly not see coming, both were hit with the biggest surprise of our lives. March 26th, Zach is 5 hours away on a work trip and April calls to tell him that they are now 3. For a while it REALLY shook us up as we had these big goals and ambitions set in place. While they never doubted that they would someday be parents, they had to make some major adjustments to game plans. London is here and he adds his own little attributes to our foundation. God has given us the perfect baby boy. We don't know anyone who can make either of us so happy or smile at 3:00am. Today, London is at 2 months and by the time you're reading this he will have changed for what feels like a lifetime to us. We are reading into his little personality each day and these little gifts are what fuels us in learning how to be parents. We are extremely grateful for the support we've received from all of our friends and family. We truly feel showered with love from everyone, and cannot wait to share his joy with all of you.

From pretty early on in the relationship, we both knew that we loved each other. Zach would often write and hide little notes for April, and one such note on June 8th, 2020 said that he would marry her one day. Fast forward almost a year, April has planned a trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands for Zach’s 30th birthday. She knew a proposal was coming and was hopeful it would be on this trip, but with each passing day she started to believe it wasn’t happening. Prior to our engagement date, Zach had suggested various hikes that April shot down due to the plans we had already made for the day. It was tricky for Zach to line everything up just right. With Aprils persistence on contradicting Zach’s suggestions, it only built up the doubt of this happening that Zach needed to take her fully by suprise. Little did she know, all Zach was doing was trying to get April away from any crowd of people to pop the question. On the night before the proposal April had pretty much accepted that if it wasn’t happening by now, then it wasn’t on this trip. The next day, Zach found a peninsula that was surrounded by crystal blue water and convinced April to come take some pictures. (Big camera gear, the ring, wallet…very good for keeping all valuables on me in a camera bag at all times!) There on the peninsula, Zach mustered up the courage to drop down on one knee and ask her. She said yes. The extraordinary piece to the entire story is that April being a very simple, but selective person when it comes to “things”, loved Zach’s ring selection. To this day it remains one of his greatest life accomplishments. Zach and April fulfilled the rest of their trip exploring the Virgin Islands, daydreaming of their unnamed child, swimming with marine life, and cooking dinner at the room for their birthday/engagement getaway. We’ve planned an intimate wedding/elopement in Hawaii and plan to have a celebration with all of our loved ones once we return. We can’t wait to celebrate with yall.