It was embarkation day, April 12th, 2019, when Alex and I crossed paths on the Carnival Paradise. My roommate had text me that the new teen leader was quite a sight for sore eyes so I came back to the ship with my eyes peeled. It was instant butterflies when Alex walked into Camp for the first time & I knew he was something special. Every passing moment for those few weeks we spent together was special. We still have an on-going debate about what is considered our first date but some of the highlights were climbing through caves in Cozumel, a day at Brandon Mall in Tampa, a day out on the town exploring Havana, and one of the most memorable was our first kiss on the beach in Grand Cayman. Alex was only there for a swing contract, so our time together was short lived. After Alex went home, I was interviewing for a job back in Atlanta, it was a major life change. I knew I needed to figure things out on my own, so I took the time to settle into my new world back on land in Atlanta.

Truth be told, I was worried I had ruined it with Alex.

However, on Alex’s birthday, I got brave and decided to text him. It was a moment of fate—an easy way to reconnect after time apart, and the spark was still there.

We made plans to meet up for a group trip to the Galapagos Islands, but when the trip was canceled, we didn’t let that ruin our chance to spend time together. We both kept our time off and decided to go to Aruba for a week. And that’s where Alex asked me to be his girlfriend. We spent the week in Aruba, getting to know each other more deeply and cherishing every moment. Y'all it really felt like a dream come true and was the most special week ever.

The adventure continued as Alex returned to Atlanta for New Year’s, and stayed there for eight wonderful weeks. But just when we thought we couldn’t spend more time together, I made my first trip to Nebraska, greeted by two feet of snow and -12 degree weather. For the next six months, we made long-distance work, talking every day and dreaming of the future. Then, in a huge leap of faith, Alex packed up everything and moved to Atlanta. We spent the next three years together, building a life, growing closer, and falling more in love every single day.

Then came the trip of a lifetime—Rome, Italy. On August 28, 2024, in the most magical city in the world, Alex asked me to marry him. Surrounded by the Gentry's, it was a day full of love, laughter, and a promise to spend forever together.

And here we are, planning the next chapter of our story, excited to see where life takes us next. We can’t wait to celebrate with all of you on our wedding day!

It was April of 2019 and I set foot on the Carnival Paradise for my third contract working as part of the youth staff for Carnival Cruise Lines in the midwest meets Florida town of Tampa Bay. Like most Americans I got into the cruise biz for three reasons: I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, I wanted to be adventurous and travel the world, and I had the slight sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe, I would meet the love of my life onboard one of these vessels. I can confidently say after my first two contracts that I was staring down some diabolically slim odds of accomplishing that last endeavor. It was becoming eerily apparent that ship life was for flings, not long lasting things.

Anyway, I went through the typical song and dance of meeting the doctors, HR, and the powers that be on the ship. I moved my stuff into my snug little cabin and walked through the barracks of the crew area— no sign of my soulmate. Nonetheless, I made my way up to Deck 12 to meet all of my colleagues at Camp Ocean where the youth staff were to get acquainted and settled in. While they were my coworkers, I did work separately from most of them since I specifically worked with the teenagers in “Club O2”.

I was guided into camp by the Youth Director (boss) and met the staff from all over the world from Canada to the Philippines— still no sign of my soulmate. I was about to leave to head down to my work area when the YD suggested a meet the Assistant YD who was a fellow American “from Georgia” she said in a deep Belarusian accent.

She guided me over to a woman hard at work conversing with guests. I could only see her from the back, but she had regal looking long beautiful blonde hair, and calves that could crack my skull.

She flipped around to see me and everything seemed to transition into slow motion. When our eyes locked it was love at first sight. She was absolutely beautiful. Her piercing hazel eyes paired with her sparkling smile turned my stomach on its head. “Soulmate?” I thought to myself. I figured she surely already had a boyfriend on the ship, and if she did that he was one of the singer/dancers onboard and probably extremely handsome and muscular. Or maybe even worse for me— he was one of the infamous Italian officers working in the bridge. I looked at her crew tag pinned to her uniform and read the name: Lindsey.

We made our initial introductions. I honestly can’t remember the exact exchange. I think I probably blacked out from being nervous. Regardless, when we went our separate ways to go do our jobs, she was imprinted on my mind for the remainder of the day. I remember going to my cabin for a quick break later that day and not so subtly asking my roommate about her. I was elated to find out she was single, but still cautiously dwelling on the thought that there was no chance she was into me.

That doubt of course slowly chipped away when for the remainder of that first cruise run of the contract Lindsey came to the club where I worked a very suspicious amount of times. “I’ve never had an Assistant YD come check on me so many times” I thought. Either she did not trust me to do my job, or she liked me (in reality probably both). We’d have long conversations together when she was there with me, and we’d occasionally play a few intense games of Foosball (I learned quickly how competitive she was).

The soulmate odds were rising, but there still was still a long way to go to find out. I am not one typically to make the first move with things, but I wasn’t sure how to move forward with finding out what exactly we were. To my fortune, there was motion when Lindsey technically made the first “move” and she asked me to get off the ship with her when we were in Tampa. “I can show you some of the cool spots” she told me.

One of these cool spots was Chick Fil-A breakfast (lol). Which if you know Lindsey at all is absolutely no surprise. She was shocked I had never tried the mini chicken biscuits. They were incredibly underwhelming, but the company with me was not. We meandered through Tampa Bay and ended our excursion lying on a bare mattress in a Sears with our legs hanging off the end conversing about life. Maybe this was my soulmate.

We both went back to our respective cabins after we had got back onboard to get ready to go to our shifts. I felt cautiously optimistic. A blend of elation that maybe she liked me, but also a thwart of nervousness that I was in over my head.

On that same cruise we were docked in the beautiful Grand Cayman. Lindsey and I got off together to go to the Seven Mile Beach that was a bus ride away from port. Our agenda for the day was simple: sun bathe. We got beach chairs and basked in the sun side by side. Optically we were relaxing, but internally I was not. I was having an intense debate with myself about what I should do next. I knew it was my turn this time to make a move.

That move? The ol’ hand hold. My plan was brilliant and fool proof. I’d inch my hand over to her chair slowly and subtly until contact was made. If she pulled it away— it’s a no go. It honestly may have taken a good 20 minutes from the time I moved my hand first to actually touching hers, but to my utter excitement and joy the mission was successful. We laid there hand in hand on Seven Mile Beach. We didn’t say much, but it felt like we didn’t have to.

We eventually got up to get into the salty waters of the ocean to cool off. We talked, we splashed, we joked, we laughed, and then as we inched closer and closer together in the clear blue water… we kissed.

“Soulmate?”… yep.

The rest was history.