Alex and Fran met in Mr. Bowen's engineering class at Enloe High School in 2007. They sat next to each other and over the course of the school year between building a colossal Rube Golberg machine, visiting NASA's Space Flight Center in Huntsville, and winning a national rocketry competition (TARC Champs 2008!) a serious crush developed. If it wasn't for Fran's best friend Levon tipping Alex off that her feelings for Fran were reciprocated, we might not be marking our calendars in April for a wedding! Thanks, Lev!

In the ultimate stroke of serendipity, Alex realized after picking this photo to accompany this story that she is wearing one of the shirts her Environmental Science class designed to wear on Earth Day in 2008. Now Alex and Fran are getting married on Earth Day a decade later!

Fran and Alex currently live in Harrisonburg, Virginia surrounded by the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. Fran has continued to work for AECOM, based out of the Research Triangle Park, traveling all over the country monitoring air quality as an environmental scientist. Alex started in January of 2017 as a sports medicine physician assistant at a community hospital in Harrisonburg. They love watching movies, cooking together, cheering on the Tar Heels and Wolfpack, and always having a competitive partner in one another whether it's ping pong, rummikub, or a game of HORSE. While they're enjoying setting down new roots in Virginia, they are looking forward to returning to the city where they grew up to celebrate their marriage with family and friends.