Have you ever received a text from a friend that read "My mom has a girl for you!"?

If your instant reaction to reading that was "Your Mom?", then you and David are very much alike. But, this is truly how the story of David and Rebecca begins.

The date was August 29, 2024. David was standing on a basketball court at his workplace, getting ready to play Cornhole. However, before he could begin the game, his phone buzzed, with the name "Kayla Kubitz" popping up. Curiousity got the better of David, and he opened it immediately.

You already know what the message said, and what David said back. After some back-and-forth sleuthing messages, David uncovered the full story. Unbeknownst to David, Kayla had taken it upon herself to find him a girlfriend, even going so far as to share her mission with her mom, Susan. Luckily for David, Susan worked as a nurse at a clinic in Clemmons, where Rebecca was working as part of her Rheumatology Fellowship with Wake Forest. On that fateful day, Susan asked Rebecca if she had found a man yet. Rebecca, ready to meet someone and settle down, said she had not and was open to suggestions. As soon as those words reached Susan's ears, she perked up instantly and said, "I have the perfect person for you!" At that point, information and photos were shared, and eventually a mutual light bulb went off for David and Rebecca. As their phones buzzed with what was believed to be the first photo they saw of one another, they both exclaimed, “Hey, I know them!”

Yes, in fact David and Rebecca had connected even before this fateful Thursday afternoon. About a year prior, they matched on Hinge, soon after Rebecca had moved to Winston-Salem. They chatted for a little bit on the app, the conversation fizzled, and they both went on with their lives. But, as soon as those photos fluttered onto their screens, they both went right to Hinge to confirm their suspicions. From there, they both agreed they wanted to talk again, and numbers were exchanged.

As soon as the conversation began, it never stopped. By the end of the evening, David, already smitten, had asked Rebecca out for their first date. Rebecca agreed immediately, and David went right into planning mode.

The date was set for Thursday, but, as was becoming a pattern, the two couldn’t wait to get to know each other. They texted all day and had two long FaceTimes before Thursday, September 5th, rolled around.

David had painstakingly planned every detail for Thursday, from making sure the restaurant was safe for gluten-free, to picking up flowers, and selecting what he thought was the perfect outfit (he found out afterwards that the sweater he was wearing had SEVERAL holes in it… Rebecca said she didn’t notice). The date did have a rocky moment early on, when Rebecca ordered the gluten-free pasta, and it turned out the restaurant was out. David internally panicked, and outwardly apologized, (even though it wasn’t his fault) and offered to take her somewhere else (though he actually had no back-up restaurant). Rebecca was thankfully very understanding and was still able to eat safely.

The rest of the date went swimmingly, as the two walked through the streets of Downtown Winston-Salem, at one point hand-in-hand, learning all they could about one another. They walked, talked, and even danced that night. Five hours later, they called it an evening, as Rebecca had to go to work the next day and then fly to New York for a wedding. David, smitten as could be, hopped in the car after dropping Rebecca off and texted several friends “Best First Date of My Life.” It was still a few weeks away, but David already knew that Rebecca was going to be his girlfriend.

Neither could sleep that night, both reveling in what was a truly special evening. David woke up early the next day, around 6 am, and immediately pulled open Rebecca’s contact to start writing down everything she had told him the night before. However, in his early morning slumber, he accidentally clicked on her number, and before he could blink, the phone started ringing. Immediately sent into a panic, David started mashing anywhere he could to disconnect the call, fearful that his mistaken thumb placement would ruin his chances with Rebecca before they even truly began. I mean, c’mon, no one likes to be woken up early, especially doctors…. they get enough annoying middle of the night calls anyways. Thank goodness for Do Not Disturb, as the call did not rise Rebecca from her beauty rest, though she did question why she had a missed call from her date from the night before. Even more thankfully, she forgave David for his "grave" error, and the relationship continued.

What followed that unfortunate early morning phone call was a variety of fun-filled, romantic, action-packed dates that drew David and Rebecca closer and closer together. The two played Top Golf, covered each other with paint, discovered a mutual love for several TV shows, enjoyed many meals together (this is how Rebecca came to learn that David can make an insanely good gluten free Mac ‘N Cheese, and David came to learn that Rebecca is an EXPERT mixologist) and got to know each other inside and out. All the while, David was trying to decipher the perfect way to ask Rebecca to be his girlfriend.

A few days before David asked Rebecca to be his girlfriend, he texted her that he had a surprise date planned for the two of them. He gave her a few vague details (what to wear, general location, if there was walking involved, etc.), but left the rest up to mystery. Luckily for him, Rebecca enjoys surprises. What she would soon come to learn is, David LOVES surprising people.

After leading her back to the place where their first date ended just a few short weeks prior, Rebecca walked up to find that a once dreary art deco display had been transformed into a romantic landscape, with rose petals scattered across the ground and streams of twinkling lights strung all throughout the area. With a tremble in his voice, David handed Rebecca a letter, and while she read it, opened a box of gluten free cookies that read “Be My GF GF?”, with the first GF inscribed on top of the Gluten Free symbol. Rebecca finished reading (and boy, does she read QUICKLY), and immediately looked down at the delectable desserts, and said “Yes!” And, even more fortuitous, (because, as David would come to learn, Rebecca really likes photos and videos of all the big moments in her life) he was so glad that he enlisted two of his friends, Jake and Katie, to help set-up, photograph and record the entire thing!

From there, the couple went on many unforgettable dates. Rebecca showed David the best way to celebrate the fall season, including apple picking, drinking hot apple cider, navigating corn mazes and pumpkin carving. The two celebrated the holidays together, with David bringing Rebecca home for the first time to Orlando in December to meet his parents and grandmother. But the biggest celebration (to that date) was the surprise that David threw for Rebecca for her 33rd birthday. Unbeknownst to Rebecca, David had reached out to her best friends and coordinated a surprise party for her at a makeshift ice-skating rink at the Charlotte Knights’ ballpark. Rebecca and David arrived expecting to spend the day enjoying the Winter Wonderland, but Rebecca was unaware (and so thrilled) to see her best friends from Wisconsin, South Carolina and North Carolina were all there waiting to join in on the fun.

A few weddings and weekend trips later, plus moving into their first apartment together in July, Rebecca countered that birthday surprise soiree with one of her own, planning an entire weekend adventure in Charleston, SC, including a city-wide scavenger hunt that was a blast (even if it felt like it was 1000 degrees outside).

The next few months were surrounded by Rebecca studying dutifully for her rheumatology board exam, which gave David the perfect opportunity to start planning his proposal.

The week of the proposal, David was trying to make sure everything was in motion, but things kept getting in the way. First, the initial stages of the worst winter in recent memory struck Winston-Salem, forcing David to shift the proposal inside due to the frigid temperatures. Second, the ice cream shop where he was planning a surprise engagement party after the proposal had pipes burst in the middle of the week. And third, Rebecca started to get sick.

Luckily, with David throwing every ounce of good luck (and even prayer!!) he could at the world, all the issues subsided, and the surprise proposal went off without a hitch! Rebecca even found out that she passed her board exam THE DAY BEFORE the proposal, making it truly the most memorable and impactful weekend of their lives.

The proposal was a quintessential surprise. David (and Rebecca’s parents) had completely fooled Rebecca into thinking that they were getting engaged two weeks later in New York City, when really he had planned an extravagant event at The Graylyn Estate, the place where the couple had first said “I Love You” to one another. Rebecca was told that she was going to her birthday party there (since her birthday was 5 days prior), and with the help of her friends Heysel and Bradley, who played their parts beautifully and transported her to the venue from her apartment so David could have time to set up, the surprise proposal was executed to perfection. And afterwards, they celebrated their engagement with a surprise ice cream party with friends and family at Chill Nitro, where David and Rebecca had first gone after officially becoming a couple.

We love our story and are so happy to be sharing our special day with all of you, because each of you are a very important part of what makes our story truly unique and incredible.