NOTE FOR PARENTS: Please email mahmoud@hatnote.com if
you are planning on bringing children under the age of 12 (not including
infants). Arrangements for on-site professional childcare
are being made. We want parents to be able to take a break
and celebrate while their children are in safe hands!

No website can capture what it's like to fall in love. Frankly, any text would struggle to describe how two people from different backgrounds, on opposite sides of the country became friends, built that friendship into a relationship, and agreed to marry.

Mahmoud and Maya first met the summer of 2014, attending a conference in downtown Atlanta. It's hard to say whether it was love at first sight, but there was a spark. Maya was silly, but could get serious. Then, as now, she loved to laugh. Which came in handy, because Mahmoud loves to joke.

And so we joked, and talked, alternating silly and serious. The conversations continued over the phone, often for 2-4 hours at a time. By 2015 we were dating and our ties have only gotten stronger since.

She came out to the San Francisco Bay Area to visit, he went to Atlanta, each of them ferrying family members. Building a relationship over long distances was challenging, but we made it work. Reading books, watching movies, and listening to the same radio shows, we grew together emotionally and intellectually.

For two years, even the choppiest waters felt smooth to navigate, and with each passing day we just made more and more sense to each other. We've each made the other a better, more complete person, and we've built a partnership greater than the sum of the partners.

In early September 2017, Mahmoud flew to Atlanta with his parents in tow. Before a home-cooked dinner together, he got down on one knee and asked Maya to be his wife. She said yes, of course, and we've never been happier or more excited!