Joe and Anne-Marie met at their friend’s show at Radio Bean in Burlington, Vermont. Unbeknownst to them, they had quite a few mutual friends from their time guiding at True North. At the risk of sounding cliché, they had a serendipitous “meet cute.” Joe wasn’t planning on going to the show that night and Anne-Marie was about to leave the bar when they passed each other on the stairs. They struck up a conversation that ended with Anne-Marie using a cheesy pick up line to get Joe’s number. Joe admits to gushing about it later that night with Christi at the bar who said “she’s totally into you” and for the record…she wasn’t wrong!

During Joe and Anne-Marie's first Spring together they went on a trip to Fort Myers, FL. This trip included many firsts, including meeting Anne-Marie's family for the first time. The most memorable part of the trip was taking a boat out to Lover's Beach, a secluded beach on the coast of Fort Myers. Joe and Anne-Marie spent the day falling in love and topped it off with a beautiful sunset!

Joe and Anne-Marie converted the back of Joe’s Tacoma into a bed with storage space. They packed up all of their camping and hiking gear and set off on a two week trip across the Northeast and down the Southeast and up the coast. First stop was hiking the high peaks in the Adirondacks, then off to get soaked at Niagara Falls. Next they found a hidden beach on Lake Erie on their way to the Allegheny National Forrest. The next day Anne-Marie and Aslan took a nice nap as Joe paddled the entire river in the canoe. They found a remote camp spot and had a night to remember under the stars. The next morning they made their way to West Virginia to white water raft the New River. After that they headed South to what they did know at the time would be their future home, Asheville, North Carolina. They spent their time there hiking, sight seeing, and eating good food; they fell in love with the city. Next stop was the beach. They spent a few nights in Stone Harbor relaxing on the beach and playing tennis. They made their way back up the coast and ended at the Green Mountain Bluegrass Festival for music and friendship. Throughout this trip they faced the fears and doubts as they took their relationship to the next level of intimacy. While the countless hours together certainly brought up some disagreements, this trip illuminated that they could not only have fun together but that they were compatible during the challenges too.

Joe graduated from his MSW program, Anne-Marie accepted a teaching job, and they packed up the car and moved to North Carolina! Aslan got sponsored by UHaul along the way.

To say the transition was hard would be an understatement — new jobs, new community, new life together, and throw COVID into the mix. There were so many changes all at once and their relationship was struggling under the weight of all this newness in their lives. They needed time apart to grow and feel secure with themselves in this new life they had built before they could hold each other up. After a six month separation, they rebuilt their relationship with a stronger foundation than before. After a year living apart, they moved back in together in a new house in West Asheville. This time apart was eye opening and they both realized what their boundaries, needs, and values are in a relationship. This renewed sense of stability gave their relationship new pillars. Their relationship was healthier and filled with more wholehearted love than ever before.

There's many beginnings to this story but let's just start with a conversation between Joe and Anne-Marie back in November 2022. Let's be real, getting engaged and married is one of the most exciting things a couple can do, and at the same time, it can be scary as hell! Let's just say it brought up fears in different ways for Anne-Marie and Joe. So getting back to that conversation...Joe and Anne-Marie had a long and fruitful conversation about their future which ended in Joe asking Anne-Marie to give him time and space to thoroughly think through the idea of getting married. Anne-Marie didn't mention anything about getting married for months. All the while, Joe quickly determined that Anne-Marie was his most perfect fit for a life partner. He spent the next few months scheming a master plan to surprise Anne-Marie with a ring! You can thank the show White Lotus for the backdrop of their engagement night. Watching the second season set in Italy is what inspired them to plan a trip to go to Italy in the Spring of 2023. The next conversation that Anne-Marie and Joe had about marriage started with Joe saying to Anne-Marie at a beautiful dinner on the mountainside of Positano, "so I've been thinking about something all day...I've been thinking about wanting to marry you." Thinking he meant let's talk about the future again, Anne-Marie said with eagerness, "yeah, we should talk about it!" She quickly realized when he got down on one knee that he was asking her to marry him right then. She seriously had no idea he was going to propose. She obviously said "YES" and the whole restaurant cheered! By the end of the night Anne-Marie had already planned the whole wedding and the rest of the trip all she could do was stare at her diamond ring.