12/5/20: I tweeted, “why is it that men feel the need to back into parking spaces?? Genuinely curious what you’re trying to prove.”

4/11/21: Some guy from the elevator at the Urbanite asked if I wanted to go shoe shopping with him. I was in a “say yes to everything” mood that spring so off we went. He “picked me up” (as much as he could while living in the same building) in front of the Pizza Shuttle and I talked about 95% of the time. On the way back, he kept driving and driving up the parking garage, getting closer and closer to my car. Turns out his parking space was one away from mine…and was the guy I had tweeted about 4 months ago.

4/15/21: “Thrifty Jack” (as he was affectionately called in my notes app (girls-yall get it) because he told me he likes to go thrifting) asked me to go to Aldi with him. Thus started our Aldi adventures and him asking me to run random errands with him.

4/16/21-9/16/21: Every few days. I would get texts saying “RUTTALW”: translation: are you tryna take a long walk. We spent hours walking the Oak Leaf Trail, Jack always bringing me to different parts of Milwaukee. Sometimes we would end up at the swing park, other times at Club Brady or Jo Cats playing darts, or other times running into a fox down by the river. Jack would get off at the elevator on the 7th floor and I would go up to the 8th and I started to think to myself, hmmm ok he’s funny and tall and he always walks on the outside of the sidewalk to protect me…

9/16/21: I took the afternoon off from work and texted Jack that I was going to Atwater. It was the most beautiful day and we hung out and swam at the beach all afternoon and then went back to Jack’s place and ate supper on his balcony before another Oak Leaf Trail walk. This was the day we both look back on and say it’s when we knew we were in love.

11/22/21-11/23/21: Jack was moving back to FL to finish up his grad school internship near his parents and was moving the next day. He had NOTHING packed (insert eye rolling emoji) so we spent 12 hours packing, pitching, cleaning, and then taking one last walk on the OLT. In the morning, we didn’t talk about what was next for us and I pretty much cried the whole day but after he pulled out of the garage, he called me 5 minutes later and we talked throughout his whole drive to FL.

11/24/21-4/23/22: We talked every single day on the phone or facetime and played endless word hunt games on our phones. Basically penpal vibes HAH

4/24/22: I’m not going to get into how the conversation came about (oops iykyk) but we FINALLY chatted about us and decided to OFFICIALLY DATE!!!

4/25/22-6/30/23: Jack and I spent this year traveling back and forth between FLL and MKE and then after I moved to Nashville, FLL and Nash. We went on endless walks, ate a lot of good food, explored the 3 cities, went snorkeling in FL a ton, and on a visit in June, 2022, Jack told me he loved me down at the beach. We went to a Brentwood High School football game in Nash and seeing all the families there, I realized that Jack was who I wanted to marry and have a family with.

7/1/23: I moved to FLL and into the colony to be closer to Jack! We live about 5 buildings down from each other so have been able to keep up with our walks, Aldi runs, and other fun adventures.

12/6/23: Jack and I went to a Christmas tree lighting down at Lauderdale by the Sea. Straight out of a Hallmark movie, he proposed at the same beach where he told me he loved me with his great-grandma’s ring and we ate a big scoop of peppermint ice cream after :) I’m so thankful to our Lord for leading us to each other and for Him blessing me with someone who also finds the joy in life and is always down for an adventure, big or small.

8/10/24: We are so excited for yall to celebrate our marriage with us!! Thank you to my sister, cousin, and friends who kept hearing about “this guy I take walks with”...who would’ve thought…;)

A&J

Wedding Day

2:30 PM

2:30 PM

Ceremony

3:15 PM

3:15 PM

Reception