We don't want to say that we had both given up on finding a meaningful relationship, but we can definitely tell you we were not expecting to find it on a blind date at a TopGolf in a city neither of us were from. Turns out what they say is true, you find it when you aren't looking for it. We can both confidently say that we have never had that much fun on a first date and never had felt so comfortable with someone on any date.

Three important lessons we can pass along from our first date. One, TopGolf is basically Paris when it comes to romantic designations, two, if you're single and Katherine Reese ever sets you up on a blind date, you should definitely go, and three, if the girl you are set up on a date with confidently turns down chopsticks and asks for a fork at a Ramen restaurant, you should definitely ask her out again.

What came next were two insanely fun years. Years that were defined by taking big leaps but were leaps we never thought twice about taking. Monthly trips across the country from KC to SF were no big deal. Meeting each other's families was a genuinely stress free experience, and when it came time for Jen to pick up and move across the country to help me raise an eight year old Labrador retriever, she didn't hesitate (Talley really helped seal the deal).

With all of the amazing trips we've taken together it would be a much better story to tell you that we fell in love sitting on a beach in the Caribbean or sharing a bottle of wine in Sonoma, but the truth is we fell in love with each other staring at an iPhone screen over FaceTime, laughing more than we’ve ever laughed, over the course of a few hours that felt like 15 minutes.

People like to ask us when we knew we wanted to marry one another, but neither of us can really point to a specific time or place. It just always seemed like a given that we were each other’s person and forever was always the plan. Fast forward to Leap Day, February 29th, 2024 in St John, on top of a mountain, (only slightly less romantic than TopGolf) after a hike where one person was infinitely more stressed than the other, we got engaged. In between all the sweat and tears, we started a fantastic new journey together feeling like the luckiest people on the planet.

Registry