Late in the evening on the 15th of April, 2017, Jeff and Alexa were busy engaging in harmless Saturday night revelry in Kansas City, MO with their separate friend groups. Jeff was exploring this Midwestern city with two of his friends from work, and his mother, who had flown in from Los Angeles to visit. Alexa was enjoying a well-deserved long weekend away from work with her best friend from their hometown of Wichita, KS. Sometime after 9 P.M., long after Jeff’s mom had fallen asleep and the guilt surrounding their decision to venture out without her had subsided, Jeff and his friends found themselves patronizing the Harpo’s bar in the trendy neighborhood of Westport. At approximately 10:07 P.M., Alexa ordered a whiskey and coke and proceeded from the back bar to the dance hall in order to locate the restroom. Jeff was putting the finishing touches on a beverage of his own, and attempted to make his way through the mushrooming throng of people to the main bar for a second round. Alexa was growing frustrated with the crowd and her exploding bladder, and she made a final effort to bulldoze her way through. All of a sudden, Jeff felt a slight nudge on his right side, and he glanced over and saw her. She was the most arresting and perfect woman he had ever laid eyes on. Alexa, meanwhile, had not noticed this strikingly handsome man at first, and had her tunnel vision focused on the restroom, which was now in sight. Had Jeff not commented at that moment on how she had the most beautiful eyes he’d ever seen, it is quite likely that Alexa would have continued on her aggressive path to drunken bathroom nirvana, and the two may never have met. Yet, somehow Alexa found Jeff’s corny (dad) humor amusing and ever so slightly alluring. Thirty minutes later, as the two huddled for warmth amidst the rainstorm and locked eyes, their smiles were a harbinger of the love, laughter, and friendship that were beginning to blossom…

Only three weeks later, Jeff and Alexa were enjoying their first date in St. Louis, MO. The two were in town for Jeff’s friend’s wedding, and he could not have been more excited to introduce Alexa to his friends. After a surprise trip to the theater for a live showing of The Lion King (Alexa’s favorite Disney movie), the two celebrated the union of souls at a spectacular church in downtown. It was on this night, the 6th of May, 2017, that Jeff and Alexa began formally dating.

Their relationship certainly was not easy from the start, as the two commuted five and a half hours each way on intervening weekends to visit one another. To complicate matters, Alexa had just discovered that Jeff would be leaving the US for a year to be stationed in South Korea for military duty. Despite this, the two made a promise to stay together during his time away. One year later, Jeff and Alexa found themselves moving to Washington state together to begin their next chapter of life. On June 29, 2019, Jeff proposed to Alexa along the bay in Seattle amongst close family friends. Jeff and Alexa are honored and thankful to be sharing in their very special day with all of their guests.