Our story begins in 2019 as summer started to come to a close. Like all great modern love stories, we met on a dating app. We matched in early August and began texting to get to know each other. A few anxious weeks later, we met in person. At the time, Carey lived in Medford, MA and Kelsey lived in Chestnut Hill, MA. In order to make it more convenient for Kelsey, Carey knew of a place in Brighton called Cityside Tavern (thanks Lee and Jarrod!) They met for a drink and talked for nearly two hours. It might have been longer had Kelsey not had an early morning flight to Nashville the next morning with her best friend and Maid of Honor, Kelsey. With Kelsey on her trip, Carey wanted to plan a second date before the first date became a distant memory. What should she plan? Carey reached out to one of her best friends, Gail. Gail always has a creative way of planning events, with or without the shenanigans. She mentioned that she and her now wife were thinking about going to a Red Sox game. She asked if I wanted to go and bring Kelsey. Now this is a big ask – “hey, do you want to meet my best friend on what is essentially our second date?” Carey was worried about how Kelsey would take that, but she asked anyway. Kelsey, still on her trip, said she would love to, but she wanted to see Carey before that. Kelsey planned a brunch date at Bostonia in Boston, it’s now one of our favorite places to grab brunch (apart from Java!) They ended up hanging out all day – Bostonia, to Coppersmith, to Baseball Tavern. Carey had plans to go to a concert at Fenway with friends that evening. Kelsey ended up buying a ticket to extend their date just a little bit longer. Then two days later, they went to Fenway. It went so well that Gail even invited Kelsey to her 30th birthday a few weeks later! Carey knew Kelsey was someone special if she could make instant connections with the people she cared about most.

When Carey was young, she would visit her maternal grandparents and play in the back room. She thought this was the playroom, but it was really just a room that her grandfather used to store gadgets he picked up from flea markets and yard sales. He always had hidden gems that he would let his grandchildren play with – action figures, toy cars, sports memorabilia, and those red retro viewers. You know, the ones that had the removable paper discs. You pressed the lever, and it would cycle through different images. Although Carey and Kelsey met just months before the pandemic, they were able to travel and explore. In the first year of their relationship they went to Provincetown, MA, Portland, ME, Honolulu, HI, and North Myrtle Beach, SC. They took plenty of photos together at all these beautiful places. Carey knew she would propose to Kelsey early on in their relationship, but what could she do to make the moment special? She thought back to that retro viewer and all the places they’ve traveled to. Carey went through their photos and picked six that were special moments. She put them in order with the location and the date. For the seventh image, Carey took a photo of herself proposing to Kelsey with the location of their home and the date. Carey got rainbow roses and wrapped the retro viewer for Kelsey to open when she got home from work.