Our Story
Once upon a college night out in Gainesville, Florida.
Lauren and Ross met wayyy back in 2010 (you do the math on that one) at a hip bar in Downtown Gainesville.
At the time, they were both students at the University of Florida. Lauren had just switched her major from pre-dental to fine arts to pursue a career in graphic design, while Ross was busy wrapping up his undergrad business degree when he wasn’t working out or eating Chick-fil-A with his roommates.
Lauren did not want a boyfriend (and liked to joke that she didn’t believe in finding her future husband at a bar, ha), but she thought Ross had nice teeth. He also had an 850 phone number, so she figured she’d let him buy her a meal or two.
They took things really slow — shocking to all, I’m sure — and didn’t say “I love you” until their two-year anniversary. Lauren wrote it in her anniversary card, which Ross proceeded to skim right over and miss completely. He eventually read it, caught on, and returned the sentiment.
From there, they gallivanted their way through college: studies, parties, football games, and all the usual Gainesville adventures. Ross eventually decided to pursue a law degree at UF, which worked out to be perfect timing for Lauren to finish her design degree. Ross crushed it in law school, serving on Law Review and completing various summer internships, while Lauren worked at a startup, freelanced as a designer, and finished up her classes.
After rigorously applying to jobs all over, they somehow both ended up with offers in Atlanta, Georgia (kismet!) before they even graduated.
Two gators walk into a bar…
And then they moved to Atlanta…
Lauren moved to Georgia first, spending the summer sleeping on her friend’s air mattress and drinking cheap Trader Joe’s wine while settling into her shiny new job in the big city. Ross spent those same months at his parents’ house in the Panhandle, studying for the Georgia Bar and getting thoroughly spoiled by his mom’s delicious cooking.
Once Ross made his way up to the Peach State, they moved into their first apartment together on the Westside of Atlanta in late summer 2014. It felt extremely adult of them.
In 2015, Lauren got a new job and paid off her student loans, celebrating by adopting two fluffy kittens, Huey and Ari. This came as a surprise to Lauren’s parents (“but we’re dog people!”) and was met with considerable resistance from Ross, who is now completely obsessed with them.
Fast forward to today, and they’ve filled the years with plenty of adventures: trips to France, Italy, Spain, and Hawaii, plus multiple Napa getaways, to name a few. Huey and Ari are still fluffy and cuddly, they bought their beautiful Pine Hills home in 2019 (a very well-timed pre-COVID purchase!), and Ross is still making contracts and taking names, while Lauren is now an Associate Creative Director at the same design firm she’s been with since 2015.
After many years of making everyone wonder if they were ever actually going to get married (or if they already secretly were), Ross finally decided to get down on one knee this past Christmas while the two were visiting family in Denver, Colorado.
It was just the two of them, out for a morning walk with the mountains in the background. On that crisp Colorado morning, Ross got down on one knee and asked: “do you want to get married?”
Her response: “are you for real?!”
He was not expecting that response, but accepted as a “yes”.
They’ve already lived a lot of life together and, admittedly, done things a little out of order. But after all these years, they’re excited to celebrate how far they’ve come — and even more excited to kick off this next chapter together.
Then he proposed…
