Chris's Side I first got to know Brittany as a freshman at JMU. We were both Music Education majors, Marching Royal Dukes, and, as I later found out, both from the Richmond area. She was always someone I considered a friend and all of us MuEd majors relied on each other and created a community to collectively help survive college. It wasn’t until we were both members of the JMU Symphony Orchestra when we became close. Specifically I recall a day in the spring of 2018 while I was in line at Dunkin’ (typical) and I received a Snapchat from Brittany. Unsure of what it was, I opened it and it was a picture of the promotional poster of our upcoming tour of Mahler’s 2nd Symphony down in Virginia Beach hanging up in the Student Success Center. Though initially I thought it would just be a one-time thing we kept talking and talking. I quickly realized that not only is she an amazing person, we had SO MUCH in common and we hit it off. To this day, I still can’t believe it. I quickly fell in love, but I was always honest with her. I wanted to go to grad school and study clarinet and I knew that this would take me out of the state of Virginia. I was worried about the future but she was nothing but supportive of my goals and dreams. I knew then that if we could make it through two years of me going to grad school and her teaching in Virginia, we could make it through anything. Once I graduated plans started in motion for how I was going to propose. On the cusp of a WGI season I knew it wouldn’t be until the spring of 2022 so I had time to plan, and plan I did. At the end of April, 2022 I organized an outing with all of our close friends to celebrate the end of an amazing WGI season, one I am incredibly proud of her for. Unbeknownst to her and known to literally everyone else because I can’t keep my mouth shut, I had much more in store for that day. And on April 30th, she said yes to being my wife and not a day goes by where my love for her doesn’t grow. Brittany is incredibly kind, caring, and eternally selfless. She inspires me every day in everything that I do and I cannot wait to share our lives together. She supports and nurtures all of my passions and I have never felt so comfortable around someone, and with her it is so easy to be myself. Even if that means she has to listen to me go on and on about the most recent F1 race, or some super obscure fun fact about the Atlanta Braves, the JMU Dukes, or the South Carolina Gamecocks. She is my world and I can’t wait for forever with her. Brittany's Side The first memory I have of Chris is from our freshman year at JMU when I walked into his dorm room with a mutual friend and found him fully jamming out and conducting to a midi file of a drum corp show. I can't say it was love at first sight, in fact I couldn't help but think "what an absolute wreck of a band kid." It was later when I realized his undying passion not only for music, but LIFE. It all made so much more sense when I finally got to know him, and to this day it is one of my absolute favorite things about him. It wasn't until our senior year at college when our love story started as most college romances do nowadays...a snapchat. 😂 I'm still not sure how the bravery came over me to reach out to him - we had always been friends, but our interactions were nothing more than friendly exchanges in class or when we found each other in the same line at Dunkin Donuts. I just had a sudden feeling he was supposed to play a bigger part in my life. After talking nonstop for days we went on a "field trip" with the JMU Symphony - he offered to buy me a coffee, and it was over for me, I 👏FELL👏HARD👏. And now here we are! Chris is the most generous, kind, and passionate human being I have ever encountered. He is the biggest cheerleader of everything he loves, and the amount of dedication he has shows in the commitment to our relationship and the way he loves me and our cat children, Cheddar and Enzo! <3