One of Michael's favorite past times is telling people how we met.

Michael and I technically first met in November of 2021. I was on a trip back to Philadelphia to visit all of my best friends for the first time since moving away from the city that I had spent the bulk of my early twenties in. On Saturday, Megan Cangelosi and I had spent the day celebrating a girlfriend's birthday and catching up with friends. Diane Mangan asked us to meet up for a beer before she went to a concert with her now husband and their friend, Michael. Of course, Meg and I could not miss the chance to see Diane while she was in the city so we met up at Love City Brewing. There were simply not enough minutes in the evening or beers to be shared for all of the catching up that us gals had to do, and unfortunately, Michael and I simply introduced ourselves that night and did not say another word to each other.

Fast forward to Paul and Diane's wedding in June of 2022. Paul and Diane clearly saw the possibilities before we did, and they arranged for Michael and I to walk into the reception together. We spent 5 whole hours at the reception, and still not a word was spoken between the two of us. It took until the after party at Asbury Biergarten (RIP) for us to properly say hi to each other. I left the wedding weekend with Michael's phone number where we promptly kept talking, but had no expectations that this would turn into anything more. Then, two days after I had returned to Newport Beach from the wedding I opened my phone to a message from my roommate, Melinda, that said "EM HE SPENT $30 ON POSTAGE TO MAIL SOMETHING TO YOU. KEEP HIM!". And at that moment I knew that this would not just be the cool guy I met at Paul and Diane's wedding, and we haven't stopped talking since!

We have spent the last almost three years traveling to new places, showing each other our home towns, exploring our own city of Philadelphia, creating a home for our (mostly) sweet cats, and spending countless hours with family and friends. We feel eternally grateful for all that we have experienced together, and look expectantly towards the future as we begin our married life!

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We have immense gratitude for the family and friends that have supported and encouraged us, and we feel lucky to be able to celebrate with each and every one of you! We are eternally thankful.

Love,

Emily and Michael

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