It's unsure how many love stories start with the girl making the first move, but with a little bit of liquid courage, that's how this one begins. It was Christmas break, the year of 2016, when Burckel was a freshman at Savannah College of Art and Design and Gregory was in his junior year at LSU. Burckel and Gregory were at the one and only Red Eye Bar and Grill. If you are a local New Orleans native, you know this bar was the place where all of your friends were more than likely underage, using fake IDs to get in the bar and drowning themselves in a few too many Redbull vodkas. Shortly after Burckel and Gregory met at the infamous NOLA bar, Burckel remembers standing by the bar with friends and saying to herself, "I am either drunk and have lost my mind, or I'm going to marry this man"! About a week after they met, Gregory picked Burckel up for their first date – a dinner and a movie – and as they say, the rest is history.
In March of 2022, just two short days before Gregory was leaving for his fifth season as a professional baseball player, Gregory took Burckel to a sunset dinner, got down on a knee in front of the most important people to them, and asked her to marry him. It was the quickest and easiest "yes" she's ever said in her life.
When Gregory and Burckel look back on the past years they have spent together, they see a reflection of all the love, sacrifice, and support it took to get them where they are today. They genuinely believe they were put on this earth to navigate life together as soulmates and can't wait to have you there when they say "I do" – to forever.