The story began almost 10 years ago, in 2015, when Alexandra and her fellow paralegals at MHS law firm came up with the idea to start a co-ed soccer team over the summer. In need of players to fill out the squad, Pearson was recruited to play by one of the paralegals, who was Pearson's friend from high school (Shout out to Allison Ellison!). From there, a friendship was born through regular Saturday morning/afternoon soccer games, one that continued over the next three years, and even led to Pearson recruiting Alexandra to a different weeknight soccer league a couple of years later.

However, the friendship didn't move much beyond that those first few years. Despite regular hangouts organized by the team, Pearson's attendance at those were sporadic. Hearing Pearson tell it, there were conflicting social engagements and priorities in the way, but in Alexandra's eyes, he clearly thought he was too cool to be hanging out with the group. These perspectives are still debated to this day.

Finally, after a Tuesday night soccer game, Pearson struck up the nerve to ask Alexandra out, and the two went to Ladybird for drinks on the Eastside Beltline Trail on September 19th, 2018. With an easy chemistry there from the beginning, the first date led to a second, and the two continued spending lots of time together throughout the fall.

The relationship continued to grow after that with various life events, time with family and friends, and travel. Even the uncertainty and isolation of a global pandemic could not stop things. Despite having to deal with the void of both of their soccer leagues abruptly halting, the pandemic did bring a necessary upgrade to both of their cooking skills and allowed them to take advantage of sudden full work from home privileges with an extended stay in St. Simons Island, GA in the summer of 2020.

With the world opening back up, they took the step to buy their first house in the summer of 2021, fully moving in together about three months later. They also rekindled their mutual love of travel, getting to visit Mexico, Colombia (3 times!), the Pacific Northwest, and California amongst other destinations in the years after the pandemic. A number of these trips were associated with weddings of friends and family, getting to make wonderful memories with people they love most.

Finally, in June of 2024, with the help of an excellent hotel concierge in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Pearson proposed to Alexandra on the beach of the resort, ending nervousness and speculation about what the hell was taking so long.

This brings us to Asheville on June 21st, where we will take the first step for the rest of our lives. We can't wait to celebrate with all of you!