Gabrielle and James met in July of 2017 when Gabrielle decided to meet up with some childhood friends at a local yogurt shop. Unknowingly, she sat next to James and (obviously) found him the cutest at the table. It’s often annoying when you ask someone how they know they have found the person they want to be with for the rest of their life, and their answer is “you just know”. However, Gabrielle just knew, and apparently so did James, because they started a relationship only after a few weeks of knowing each other. Two and a half months in James told Gabrielle he loved her in the movie theater, and not long after they said they were in love with each other. It wasn’t always easy, as life comes with its trials but loving each other was never hard. Through four years of five hours apart during college, James and Gabrielle travelled as often as they could to see each other, even if it was only for a few days. After four long years, they finally were back to living only ten minutes apart, and soon after they got their first apartment together. It wasn’t long after that, when a new member of the crew was introduced via a Craigslist ad sent by Gabrielle’s sister, (and Matron of Honor). James joked that getting a puppy was the “fast-track to getting engaged”, but it wasn’t until April 20th that Gabrielle realized it wasn’t a joke. It was the easiest yes she ever said.

Loving James is easy. His spirit and personality always draws everyone in. Without hesitation, he provides every single day for me. From day one, he was the kindest person I had ever met. I remember one of the first times we hung out, us and our friends were going to see a movie and it was halfway there that I had realized I left my wallet somewhere (I know how it looks, I promise I was going to pay). James quickly paid for my ticket, and I immediately admired his kindness for someone he literally had just met. James never has changed. He consistently demonstrates that exact kindness every single day. Going four years of distance was difficult, but it was worth it to know what our future held. When I walked down the path of pictures of us over the years at the place he asked me to be his girlfriend at, I knew exactly what was happening. Unfortunately, I’m aggressively emotional and couldn’t see anything through the tears in my eyes. It didn’t matter in the end though, because I heard the question I knew I would always say yes to. I’ve always known it was James, and I am so grateful that it is.

We first met at a frozen yogurt shop because our mutual friend Julian was in town. From there, we started hanging out more with our friends John and Jazmin and eventually ourselves. One of the times it was just us gabby asked me for a shirt to wear for a football game and our relationship started. We stayed together our senior year of high school and eventually all throughout college. I attended app state, and she attended ECU but we both visited each other when we could and made it work the entire time. After we both graduated, we moved into our apartment together in May of 2023 with our dog sparky. We have since gotten another dog named Pia and have gotten engaged. We are extremely blessed and excited to get married on 10/4/25❤️