Ours began as all great love stories do… on a dating app. We met in person for the first time on December 8th, 2017 at Blackwell Hitch in Old Town Alexandria. We hit it off instantly and by April 2018, we were basically living together. From 2018-2020, we lived in Old Town Alexandria. Joey worked in Washington, DC as an attorney and Laura was a first-grade teacher in Fairfax County, Virginia. Joey quickly won over Laura’s dog, Eyck (pronounced Ike); and those of you who know Eyck, know that that was quite the feat.   During our time in Virginia, Joey introduced Laura to the Washington Capitals. Laura quickly fell in love with the Capitals, and going to Capitals games became a weekly tradition. During the offseason, we travelled to Baltimore for Laura's favorite vegan food, hiked many trails, dined over our favorite Ethiopian food, and enjoyed many rounds of Top Golf and Monster Mini Golf. One of our biggest accomplishments was hiking 50 miles in 20 hours to raise money for the Mohonk Preserve in upstate New York. To this day, Joey still suffers from PTSD whenever asked to “walk” further than one mile (his pinky toe still hurts). In addition to visiting their friends and family in Laura’s hometown, New York City, and Joey’s hometown, Williamsburg, VA, they travelled to Italy in the spring of 2019. Joey still talks about the pizza.  In 2020, right before the pandemic began, Joey was offered a job in Las Vegas, Nevada. He took it, and moved across the country on March 1, 2020 with the promise of Laura and Eyck joining him at the end of May 2020. While Joey was in Las Vegas on his own, he found himself in a position to rescue a cat, Frankie, and a dog, Ruby. By June 2020, our family of 3 had become a family of 5! In December 2021, we became homeowners and bought our first house in Las Vegas, Nevada. The very next day, we rescued a cat, Snickers and became a family of 6! In March 2023, we spent 10 days in Maui, Hawaii. We hiked incredible trails, swam at beautiful beaches, saw so many North Pacific Humpback Whales, snorkeled in Lanai, ate delicious food, drove the Road to Hana, and best of all, we got engaged! We had been in Hana for a few days and Joey knew that Laura's favorite place they had visited was the Black Sand Beach in Waiʻānapana State Park. On March 15, 2023, we went back to Waiʻānapana before heading to Haleakalā National Park. Joey asked Laura to marry him in the Lava tube on the black sand beach. Laura was stunned and (according to Joey) did not answer him. After a celebratory kiss she finally did and she said yes! We are so excited to celebrate with all of you! We hope you can join us for our celebration in our new home front, Las Vegas, Nevada!