You may remember 2020 as the year the world shut down. Kara and Shaye remember it as the year that changed the course of their lives and brought them together. After the pandemic moved classes back online in November 2020, Shaye moved from Missouri back home to Las Vegas, where Kara was teaching Fourth Grade. Like any modern love story, a few swipes later (we'll let you guess who swiped right first on TWO dating apps) Kara and Shaye were exchanging messages with one another around the clock. On December 31, 2020, Shaye finally asked for Kara's number and invited her to get coffee before Shaye headed to Texas to visit her sister for a while. Unfortunately, it didn't work out (you should ask Kara more about that one), and Shaye headed to Texas without meeting Kara IRL. After nearly a month of constant texts, phone calls, and facetimes into the wee hours of the morning, Shaye went back to Vegas and the two made it officially official on January 28, 2021. It was a whirlwind after this. Highlights included four cancelled flights, a Texas snow storm trapping us in a hotel room for a week, a broken down car in the middle of the Arizona Desert (can you find the picture of in the tow truck that finally rescued us in our gallery?), a summer spent in Missouri, and a year of long distance. If we could make it through this, we could make it through anything. May 2022, Kara made the big jump and moved to Missouri while Shaye was finishing her doctoral program. Kara, Shaye, Tucker, and Lorelai settled right at home with one another. On December 31, 2022, two years after Shaye asked for Kara's number, Shaye asked Kara to marry her. Fortunately, Kara said yes, making up for the coffee date rejection two years prior. On July 20, 2023, Kara surprised Shaye when she arrived home from work to roses, candles, sharks, and Kara asking Shaye to marry her. (Spoiler: she also said yes.) Our love story has been nothing like we expected, but exactly what we both had searched for. We're excited to continue our lives together and celebrate our love with marriage. We can't wait for you to be part of our love story by meeting us in Las Vegas, October 5, 2024!