In His Words:

It was a long road to meet Elizabeth. A long single road. Before I met Elizabeth, I had been single for almost eight years. My last relationship ended in late 2014. I was in my mid-20s and living in Fort Myers, Florida. After that, I honestly didn’t try very hard to find a girlfriend. I knew I’d eventually move back to Georgia, and I didn’t want to be tied down when that time came. Plus, working overnights in local TV news didn’t exactly lend itself to meeting people. I usually just went out with my co-workers and enjoyed living near the ocean.

In 2019, I was fired from my job at WFLA in Tampa and moved home to Loganville. Two months later, I got my dream news job as a producer at WSB-TV in Atlanta. After a couple of years there during the Pandemic, I fell into the “Great Resignation” trend. I quit my job and started a totally different career as a communication consultant. Normal hours. Better pay. Actual work/life balance. It was and still is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. With all this new-found time I had from working normal hours, I figured it was time to try the apps again.

At the top of my Hinge profile, I put my goal of trying to eat at every state and capital city’s oldest restaurant. On February 10th, 2022, I checked off Alabama’s oldest, Golden Rule Bar-B-Q in Irondale, with my friend and now groomsman, Tyler. During that trip, I also attended a concert at a Cathedral by Voces8, an a cappella octet from the UK. When I got in the car to head back to Atlanta, I looked at Tyler and said, “Man, I am a very specific person. It’s going to take a very specific girl to want to be with me.” I meant that I have such odd interests and passions; finding a girlfriend will be difficult.

On March 6th, I found that specific girl. Elizabeth liked my restaurant goal and asked me what the oldest in Georgia was. We had a couple of days of texting through the app, and on March 8th, we had our first date at Red Pepper Taqueria in Town Brookhaven.

In Her Words:

It was about the third time I created a profile on Hinge since the beginning of COVID, and I had strict rules and regulations for myself on my usage of the app. I tried to only look at my likes while in bed, and I promised myself I would go out with any guy that asked. I liked Brad’s profile on a Sunday and asked him about the oldest restaurant in Georgia. He replied with a voice memo sometime on Monday, and I saw it before going over to a friend’s house for dinner. By the time I got back from dinner, Brad felt comfortable enough with me to tell me how badly dating apps suck, and I told him I didn’t know if I should be offended or take it as a compliment.

We continued exchanging a few texts; if Brad could have, he would have called me late that night. What he failed to know yet was that it was already past my bedtime. He asked me to dinner the next night, and I agreed 1) because of my rule that I would go out with anyone who asked and 2) because I needed to run to get gas at Costco anyways. We met in the front booth of Red Pepper Taqueria the next night, and I didn’t know what I had gotten myself into. Brad wasn’t afraid of anything – we talked about all of the taboo topics and most of the skeletons in the closet. We shut the restaurant down and stood outside for another hour, continuing to talk. Brad asked if he could kiss me, and I said yes.

He was smitten, and I was anxious. He called me about 7 minutes after getting into his own car and wanted to keep talking. He would have gone out with me the next night if I had let him. That night kicked off a month of talking or seeing each other almost every night. A little over a month later, we were already planning our year and falling in love. Our adventure started as two people connecting over the woes of internet dating and our shared interest in travel, and it has continued to grow and blossom into each corner of the world we are lucky enough to explore together.

Marriage discussions between Brad and Elizabeth happened early. It was clear from the start each was different from their previous partners. It didn’t take long for them to fall in love and start looking toward the future. Before they met, Brad had a trip to Kentucky on his calendar with his family to eat at Kentucky’s oldest restaurant and watch the Georiga-Kentucky game. Turns out, Elizabeth had a travel goal to watch a football game at every SEC stadium. Once she was locked into that trip, Brad knew that would be the place he’d ask for Elizabeth’s hand in marriage.

Brad planned a whole weekend of engagement celebration. After eating at The Old Talbott Tavern in Bardstown with Brad’s family, the two took a Christmas tour of the My Old Kentucky Home Mansion. After the tour, Brad and Elizabeth went back to the front door to take a selfie in front of the decorations. Elizabeth paid little attention to the two photographers out front, thinking they were just practicing their photography. But Brad had contacted them to capture the moment Elizabeth said yes. The celebration that followed involved great food, a possible ghost encounter, a UGA win over Kentucky, dinner with both parents (Elizabeth’s parents drove up from Georgia to be a part of it), and a champagne toast with all Elizabeth’s closest friends. It was an incredible and unforgettable weekend.