You never know when or where fate will bring two people together.

Alex and Kristian were born thousands of miles apart. Alex in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Kristian in Santa Barbara, California. They just so happened to both be in Hiroshima City, Japan in the Fall of 2019.

Both had taken jobs as high school English teachers on the JET programme. Alex had lived there for a year and Kristian had just arrived. They met on a rooftop beer garden during a social event for their program where they exchanged a few pleasantries with neither of them thinking much of it afterwards. As the months went on, they became friends and soon were going to music shows and hanging out at some of their favorite spots in the city--Dumb Records, Bar Edge, and the Peace Park to name a few--where they and other friends would enjoy life in this foreign place that was becoming a home.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, that home became a refuge for them and their friendship grew despite the difficulties and confusion around them. They spent weekends on zoom hangouts, at movie nights with small groups of friends, and even fit in a pretty incredible road trip around Japan’s Kyushu region that neither of them would forget.

Neither Alex nor Kristian saw each other as a romantic partner during the first two years of their friendship and in fact the prospect might seem ridiculous to them if

you went back in time to this period and told them that they would fall in love. (However, ask Alex and she will say that it was on that roadtrip that she began to see Kristian in a new light. Must've been all his tidepool knowledge on the trip's beach stops.)

But around the beginning of 2022 they started dating. The future was still uncertain and by then, both of them were starting to think of what would come after Japan. The next step which could lead them to separate parts of the world. But they decided to go for it and pursue a relationship. As it turned out, it ended up being one of the few things that made sense in their lives. With the bedrock of their friendship, dating was easy and they soon fell in love and found themselves planning that next step together.

In 2023 they returned to Kristian’s hometown of Santa

Barbara. Moving back was a big adjustment, especially for Alex who had never been to California before and was starting over in a new place, but she took the future on with grace and they had each other’s shared experience of life in Hiroshima so that neither felt alone in this new stage of life. After about a year they ended up in Monterey, and

were able to return to Japan to visit old friends in January of 2025. On that trip, Kristian and Alex took a day trip to Kurashiki, Okayama for their third anniversary and Kristian asked Alex to marry him.

It was the friendship and love of many people whom we owe a debt of gratitude for cultivating a peace in all the chaos and uncertainty of recent years. We would like to celebrate those friends and loved ones with our wedding ceremony. We hope you’re able to join us in Monterey on Sunday, March 22nd where we’ll celebrate our love and throw an awesome party for the people we both love as a show of gratitude.

Registry

Your support for our marriage in-person and afar means the absolute WORLD to us. What an honor to have this village in our corner. For those who have kindly asked, we have created a small registry along with a fund for our honeymoon to kick off this next chapter together.