Hi everyone, I'm Mandi. I'll be telling the story from my point of view, because let's face it, no man wants to take part in designing a wedding website...
This was our first photo together and taken on my birthday, less than a month after our first date... by then we were already inseparable.
After my birthday, we quickly planned a last minute New Year's Eve trip to Vienna, Schloss Fuschl, and Paris for a few weeks.
Mike let the cat out of the bag and told me he loved me on the very first night of the trip at Brezlgwölb (try to say that 3 times fast) in Vienna. Of course, I was already head over heels for Mike and said it back immediately.
The rest of the trip was pure joy.
On the same trip, I forced Mike to confront his fear of heights and climb the Eiffel Tower... spoiler alert, he loved it.
We also enjoyed way too many almond croissants, strolling through the streets, shopping (of course), and had a lovely dinner with some of Michael's friends.
Only a few short months after we returned from Europe, the world shut down with the coronavirus pandemic.
Though we were fortunate to be together and turned tough times into fun memories.
We tried our hand at puzzles and various board games, homemade pizzas, and spent a ton of time with family when we could...
We spent a lot of time at the beach in Miami, in the Florida Keys with my dad and his girlfriend Christy, and met my mom and her boyfriend Kevin in Clearwater Beach for my mother's birthday...
We were able to drive up to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to spend time with Mike's family, go the the Biltmore, Asheville, as well as stop in Savannah on the way back home.
Highly recommend Hole Donuts in Asheville and Elizabeth's on 37th in Savannah—thank me later.
In July 2020 we moved into our first home together, an apartment in Miami Beach.
The view and sunsets are spectacular as evidenced by this photo from the balcony.
We spend a lot of time at home cooking, reading, and cuddling. Okay, okay, I confess... Mike does most of the cooking, but I am quite skilled with breakfast (aka anything that involves a frying pan and eggs).
We spent Thanksgiving with my mom in Atlanta and helped her decorate the Christmas tree (no, Thanksgiving is not too early for Christmas decorations!) and then saw Mike's family in Chapel Hill for the weekend.
We also went up to spend Christmas with the Collins family, as you may know, they needed some extra love this year and we were more than happy to oblige and spend as much time with them as possible.
For our New Year's Eve trip (now a tradition for us), we went to Arizona!
It wasn't the same type of spontaneous, romantic Europe trip that we took last year thanks to Covid lockdowns, but it was just as fun and beautiful.
We crossed hot air balloon ride off our bucket list, flew in a helicopter over the Grand Canyon—which was incredible, ate some amazing Mexican food, hiked and enjoyed the desert and some spa treatments.
And now, the moment you've all been waiting for... our engagement!
Mike proposed on Easter Sunday (4/4/21). We spent the day with his family and friends BBQing and relaxing in the pool, when all of the sudden Mike rushes me to get out and go home to take pictures at the viewing deck of our apartment building (somehow I didn't suspect anything was going on). We get up there and take a few photos as the sun starts to set over the water, I look out for a brief moment and when I turned around he was on one knee! I can't describe the amount of overwhelming love and joy I felt in that moment.
And there you have it! You're all caught up in the summarized story of us. We are so excited to continue to make incredible memories for the rest of our lives together. Thank you all for being a special part of them.