Our love story began in Brooklyn. Well, kind of. We actually met in high school through Ashley's best friend and Maid of Honor, Megan, who took her to one of Alex's infamous house parties in 2008. We exchanged a few words, and Ashley remembers thinking that Alex was a pretty funny guy. We never would have anticipated what was to follow years down the road. Ashley moved to New York City in the summer of 2013, and coincidentally Alex moved to New Jersey the same month, but neither of us knew. About a year later, Ashley was scrolling through her social media feed and saw that Alex had taken a photo of the Williamsburg bridge, the neighborhood Ashley was currently living in. Without much thinking, Ashley reached out to him, and well, the rest is the beginning of our story. We met up in Williamsburg and Ashley took Alex to one of her favorite neighborhood food joints -- The Brooklyn Star. "They have the BEST meatloaf sandwiches" she said. Need she say more? We walked, we ate, we talked, we walked some more... and we just clicked. We realized we had so much in common. The night fell upon us, and we found ourselves in a park down by the East River, overlooking the Manhattan skyline. Ashley loved photography, one of her main influences for moving to the city, and Alex was actually trying to learn more about taking photos, so she showed him what "bokeh" was and they took turns competing for the best out-of-focus shot of the bridge. At the time, Ashley knew this could be the start to something special. but Alex? Alex knew he wanted to marry her.

Fast forward through moving in together rather quickly, exploring NYC with each other for another year and a half, re-locating back to Florida to be closer to our family, and adopting the rescue pittie of our dreams, here we are 4 years later and couldn't imagine our lives without each other or our furry baby girl. This past March, we took a month long Euro-trip to Paris, Amsterdam, and Italy. We took an incredible day tour along the Amalfi coast, starting in Sorrento and working our way through Positano, Amalfi, and Ravello. The views, the mountains, the sea sparkling in the sun, the history... it was already Ashley's favorite day of the trip. When we got to the town of Amalfi, our driver dropped us off by the pier. He told us that if we walked all the down the pier and looked back, we could get the best photo of Amalfi, and of course Ash wanted that perfect shot. We walked down to the very end of the pier and looked back. Our driver wasn't kidding. Alex then asked our moms to take a photo of us (did we mention that we asked *both* of our moms to go to Italy with us?!) As we were getting into position, Alex got on one knee and asked Ashley to marry him. Our eyes filled with so many happy tears and Ashley said YES! Remember that first night we sat and talked down by the river? Ashley told Alex of her love for Italy and her dream to visit the Amalfi Coast. It was then Alex knew how he would some day propose to Ashley.

March 23rd, they day we got engaged, is also Ashley's mom's birthday! Our driver was in on it, and during our tour him and Alex were secretly figuring out the best proposal spot. To keep the engagement ring a surprise from Ashley, Alex had the ring shipped to his mom’s house in New Jersey. When the time came to bring the ring to Italy, his mom had to fly with the ring from New Jersey to Florida, (To meet Ashley’s mom), then they had to trek the ring from Florida to Texas, Texas to London (and through customs) and then finally to Italy! The mom’s and Alex kept it a secret for a week in Italy before he could propose!