I met Rachel in 2012 - our freshman year at Auburn - through mutual friends from her sorority and ended up in the same friend groups. From when I first met her, she always impressed me by being a straight-A engineering student while still being the life of the party.

We stayed friends throughout college and got closer our junior and senior years. After graduation, she moved to Atlanta and I moved to Mobile, and I figured that was probably that.

Fast forward to 2017. We were both back in Auburn for a reunion tailgate, and Rachel randomly invited me to the Endymion Extravaganza for Mardi Gras in New Orleans. I said yes, obviously. That weekend I completely fell for her - but with us in different cities, I doubted anything would come of it.

Still, I kept finding excuses to hang out with her over the next few months. Then that summer, I invited our college friends to a lake weekend. Not many people showed up, but Rachel did - which worked out, because I used the opportunity to finally make a move. She initially turned me down. Pretty brutally. But she came around, and not long after, we started dating.

Even though we started our relationship long-distance, I somehow managed to convince her to come to Oktoberfest in Germany with me in 2018 after just a few months of dating. Rachel moved to New Orleans soon after, which meant lots of weekend trips back and forth between Mobile and NOLA. Then when COVID hit, she ended up stuck in Mobile with me for what we thought would be a couple weeks… it turned into months. And honestly, it ended up being an incredible experience for us. Eventually I moved to New Orleans with her when I started working remotely, and we’ve been doing life together ever since.

In the last few years, we’ve packed in a lot - wine nights during lockdown, a new puppy (Ford), way too many takeout orders, and trips all over the world: Germany, France, Austria, Aruba, Punta Cana… and she brought me to see Taylor Swift in Spain. It’s been an amazing ride so far and I couldn’t ask for a better partner in these adventures.

Looking back, it’s crazy how things worked out. From college friends to long-distance to where we are now, I’m really glad she came to that lake party.

Registry