Alison was sitting in church in October 2023 and got a notification of a connection and message from a beautiful man named Chris!! It started off with a few messages then a call that didn’t feel like the first.
After excitement around meeting each other had built for a couple of weeks, Christopher planned their first date at a moody cocktail bar called the Clifton club. Chris arrived early and got a seat at the bar and saved one for his soon-to-be future wife. They spent over three hours chatting about their love for family, travel, learning, food (Asian in particular!), and much more. They wouldn’t know it until much much later, they both texted friends individually afterward and said they think they just went on their last first date.
Alison went on a silent church retreat early into their dating story - after they had many conversations about the importance of Jesus and faith in both of their lives. The short story is that this is where God revealed Chris was in fact providing her husband - Christopher James.
This was one of the stained glass windows in the chapel about Ruth and Boaz (which Alison thinks looks similarly to Chris and Alison!)
Oh what fun they had having first dates during the holiday season! Celebrating Thanksgiving, Chris’s 40th birthday and many meals and walks in between.
Can they credit their Uber driver to getting married in New Orleans per his suggestion? They sure can! (Although, early into dating, Chris & Alison realized their mutual longstanding love of Louisiana….so it was likely fate as well). ☺️
Alison got to meet Chris’s family at Easter - so special!
They got to celebrate a lot that trip - Chris’s cousin’s wedding, their one year anniversary and seeing Chris’s nephew Kenny win his school’s football championship game!
New Orleans, LA at the Audubon Park - in the “Butterfly Playground” with poems (a whole book written by Christopher), (happy) tears, Spanish moss and butterflies. What a dream!
This trip solidified their desire to get married in New Orleans -- a place special to both of them and a place where they want to host their family and friends as they get married.