It started at Maggie’s.

Maggie’s Bar & Grill, that is. For those of you non-Emory alums, Maggie’s Bar & Grill is a campus-adjacent hot spot, popular for its cheap drinks, decent playlist, and lax ID policy. The floors: sticky; the air quality: poor; and while there was a 90% chance of contracting food poisoning from anything other than the french fries; the times: fun.

It was Maggie’s (the person, that is) first night at her namesake establishment when she asked an unsuspecting David to snap a shot of her and her roommate.

David, in a moment of clarity, grabbed a selfie instead and took the opportunity to save his own number in her phone.

Things carried on from there, as these things do, and they spent the year having fun decorating for themed parties, and bonding over putt putt dates.

After a summer apart, things swung back into action when Maggie and David returned back to campus.

A few quick trips to the ER: First David’s unstoppable nausea (a motif, one might call it) due to a particularly rough bout of NoroVirus followed by a violent eye infection for Maggie sent these two head over heels! It was after returning from the second round at the hospital that they said I love you for the first time.

The next year, they both opted to study abroad, meeting for weekends throughout Europe.

Second semester, most nights (and laundry loads for that matter) happened at Maggie’s and Amanda’s apartment, and they spent the time enjoying and exploring Atlanta.

From there, David was off to NYC, and a year later Maggie joined him.

By that point, David had moved to 36 Bedford, a West Village apartment with the best back porch in town. For the most part 36 Bedford was home for Maggie too because David and Dan kept it constantly filled with friends and family. Every guest had to log their height on the wall, but only the lucky ones had a mouse sighting.

It was the site of good times and bad, and became the gym and office too after David turned up with the second Covid case within all of Mt. Sinai hospital. Symptoms were… gastrointestinal. (Did someone say motif?!)

When it was time for the next place, Maggie and David thought they’d spread their wings, try something new, get a little space, all from just across the river in Williamsburg.

Of course, within a matter of weeks, one of David's best friends and former roommates Tyler moved in up the block, quickly followed by Dan, another best-friend-turned-roommate, who moved into the building next door with a perfect view into Maggie’s and David’s living room so the boys could wave and walkie talkie… it was perfect.

Without fail, Saturday mornings started with a croissant and coffee from Bakeri, plus a mandatory walk through McCarren park. Dinners were from Wei’s of Williamsburg, the best Chinese food in all five boroughs – and Tuesday’s were always for Tilapia.

But, adventure was calling, so after a year and a half, Maggie and David decided to try their hand at California living. They found their new home in Santa Barbara, just an hour and a half north from Maggie’s Grandma Donna.

Before the end of their first month in California, they brought home a puppy and named her Willie (short for “Wei’s of Williamsburg Berdoff").

Saturday mornings went from park walks to beach walks. On one of those jaunts on July 23rd, David proposed at the site of their new Saturday routine: Hendry’s Beach.

From there, they went back to Maggie’s (and David’s apartment, that is) to celebrate with their families–and got to planning for the celebrations ahead.