Here you’ll find our schedule, shuttle & venue information, link to reserve in our hotel block, and registry. Be sure to check out some photos of us and a little bit about our love story so far. Don’t forget to RSVP and leave us a song request for the dance floor, too! We can’t wait to celebrate this special day with all of our favorite people! With love, Catherine & Alex

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy learning more about us & our relationship. Hint: these memories and our personalities will show up in different ways on our big day.

Meet Catherine: Born and raised in Cincinnati, Catherine moved away for school (twice), ultimately landing back in Cincinnati. Catherine’s love of learning and sense of adventure has led her to visit countries on six continents, become a SCUBA Divemaster, and be full of random facts. Meet Alex: Born in Maryland and growing up in Oxford, Ohio, Alex has had a love of technology and security since he was a wee tot. Alex enjoys online and physical board games, particularly with close friends and family.

Catherine and Alex first met in a work meeting in 2019—Alex had to review and approve technology for Catherine’s team. At the end of the meeting, Alex asked Catherine if she played D&D. Catherine gave him a confused look and asked “what?”. She knew that D&D stood for the game Dungeons & Dragons, but wasn’t sure if she understood his question correctly and if so, where in the world the question had come from. You see, she forgot that there were stickers on the back of her laptop; stickers that looked to Alex like dice used in D&D, but to her were the Platonic Solids. It was clarified that she had never played and they parted ways, back to the rest of the work day.

April 2020—lockdown. Catherine had a previously scheduled doctor’s visit now via video. The appointment was during the middle of the workday so she decided to take it from her work laptop. Whoops! The IT security group got a notification that her laptop camera had been accessed by the website for her appointment. However, Alex, being on that IT team, saw her name and took the work task to reach out to her (purely looking out for the security of the company, of course 😉 ). After ensuring the company was safe, he asked her how lockdown life was going and from there they slowly increased their frequency of conversation over the months, moving from co-workers to friends and then tentatively voicing their feelings towards each other.

Because of quarantine, being coworkers and then good friends, they first got together more informally, taking Catherine’s dog, Mali, on an off-leash walk at Amberly Green. A huge thunderstorm came through right when they were scheduled to meet, pushing back their meeting by a couple of hours. The rendezvous would now be over dinner time, and there was the dog to consider too. So, after another very short downpour that caused Mali to try to run back to the car, they sat on a park bench and enjoyed PB&J sandwiches, chips, and Gushers (a gummy fruit snack with liquid flavoring inside). Luckily for their first official date, things went much better, the official start of their relationship.

Remember how they first met? Well by this time, December 2022, Catherine and Alex had been enjoying solving puzzles/brain teasers together as well as playing D&D with a small group of friends for awhile. With Christmas coming up, Alex wanted to give everyone little gifts and had 3D printed containers that required solving a maze to expose a clue (in the form of a rhyming verse) for the gift was hidden, including one for Catherine. These friends were coming over on a Saturday morning to paint miniature character figurines, so Catherine left to pick up some brunch food for everyone and was late coming back, so 3 of the 4 others had already found their gifts. The fourth was coming over the next day, so Catherine assumed she would open hers the next day, however, that evening Alex reminded Catherine she still needed to open hers. Catherine sat down on the end of the couch by Alex who was seated in his desk chair a couple feet away and proceeded to solve the maze and get her clue. Her clue told her there Alex had a second clue for her. Alex pulled the clue/poem from his pocket and read it to her, sliding to one knee for the last stanza, asking her to be his wife. Needless to say, Catherine said YES! …and then immediately asked if he was ok and told him to get back up – Alex’s second hip surgery had been on that previous Monday and so kneeling was not advised and was painful for him, but it was worth it! 😊

A lot has happened, and a lot of memories made, in the 3 years that Catherine and Alex have been together, including, between the two of them, 5 household moves. Beyond that, to give a sense of some of big events solidifying they can have fun and go through tough times together… Within the first year: • Met each other’s families within the first 3 months • • Catherine’s dog, Mali, passed away • • Their apartment building was being sold so they might have to move with one month’s notice • • Adopted their 3-footed, floppy eared “red” (brown) Doberman, Sabi – a whole story in itself • • Alex received a promotion • • Traveled to Iceland and learned how each other does handling big changes in plans/unexpected events • • Traveled to Hawaii – again having plans go awry • The second year: • Experienced family members’ health issues and surgeries • • Alex had surgery on each hip, four months apart • • Took a riverboat trip on the Danube with Catherine’s parents • • *Getting engaged!* • 2023 so far: • Wedding planning • • House hunting • • Ultimately buying their new house and moving in on August 2nd •

While the future is never certain, Catherine and Alex are hoping that at least some of the chaos of their first three years will be behind them and look forward to settling in to their new home and honeymooning in Japan. Beyond that, they are excited: • To continue expanding Alex’s culinary palette, pottery, games, D&D, and making up new lyrics for songs • For other adventures (Alex getting SCUBA certified, maybe finally seeing a volcano erupt, ski trips with friends) • …and so much more!