it takes a village, and we can't wait to celebrate with ours.

Max and I likely crossed paths many times on or around Methodist University’s campus in Fayetteville, NC before officially meeting in June 2017. I attended college there with his younger brother, Jake, and Max served as the Assistant Men’s Lacrosse Coach from 2015 to 2017. For those of you who don’t know, MU is a small, private faith-based university on a dry campus. This is not the place where faculty and students intermix, so it makes sense that Max and I didn’t actually meet until after I graduated. I was at Fayetteville’s local beloved Irish pub with fellow recent graduates when we ran into a group of familiar MU faces, and Max was among them. They were celebrating Max’s new job and upcoming move back to Atlanta; it was his last night in Fayetteville. Our introduction was yelled and half heard in the crowded bar, but Max still managed to ask me about my post-grad plans. When I told him I was moving to Manhattan, he mentioned that he had a friend named Anna Kate who lived there, and he offered to introduce us once I got settled in NYC. After an Instagram follow and him walking my friend and I to our car, our brief encounter was over. (AK is now one of my dearest friends — We lived 3 blocks apart in the city and she is one of the few who helped bring Max and I together!) Fast forward a year later to Memorial Day 2018, when I got a FaceTime call from my best friend, Taylor. I answered fresh out of the shower, wearing a robe and towel around my head, mortified to see that she wasn’t alone — She was at a friend’s lake house and Maxwell Smerka was right beside her. She said, “Hey Lou, we were just talking about you!” and gave her phone to Max, resulting in the most awkward 60-second conversation of my life. She texted me afterwards to tell me Max thought I was cute, and I told her that 1,000 miles was too far for us to do anything about it. (We wouldn’t be here without you, Lanie!) After that fateful FaceTime, Max and I started communicating through social media, which eventually turned into texting and phone calls and daily FaceTimes, all of which made the miles between us feel a little less far. In August 2018, Max and I made a plan to meet again in person. He was heading to Nashville to visit some friends and invited me to join, but I don’t think he expected me to say yes! I flew to Atlanta, he picked me up inside the airport and we drove 5 hours together to Nashville. We spent the entire ride chatting and playing our favorite songs for one another. It was an unconventional, but epic first date. Max and I continued to visit one another every few months while dating long distance, including him surprising me by flying into NYC for my birthday, but after two New York winters, I was ready to move back south and a job offer in Atlanta gave us the opportunity to live in the same city for the first time. So much has happened between then and now, but we know the best of our story is yet to come.