Our story begins back in 2021, when we both began consistently attending Black Rock Church in Fairfield, CT. We met on a summer Thursday at midweek, a community group hosted by our church. The first time we spent time together ourselves was a trip to Target... which we both left thinking "this will probably never happen again". Who knew we would be in store for Target trips for a lifetime!

We would both head back to college that fall, but would remain in touch throughout the year and at school breaks through Ignite, the college-age ministry at our church. We were always in the same friend group, although our first photo taken together was in the summer of 2022 when we went to Block Island!

As the Fall of 2022 came, Melissa started Graduate School while Simon continued with undergrad. Now that Melissa was back home (and grad school had not become too intense yet) our friends took a trip up to Gordon College, where Simon was in school!

Fast forward to the Spring of 2023... many things had changed in both our lives, but one thing remained constant, our friendship!

Our friend group took a day trip to NYC, and on this trip, Melissa asked Simon if he wanted to go to a Yankees game. This sparked a thought in Simon... was his FRIEND... Melissa... asking him out?! Unfortunately for him, she was not! (sorry Simon) She just wanted to go to a baseball game, and knew he was one of her friends that liked the team.

This led Simon to begin to think more about his friendship with Melissa. He was headed away to North Carolina for an internship at Duke, and still had a semester left at Gordon in the fall. Unsure about how anything would go, he remained neutral.

We naturally began to communicate more outside of just group settings, getting to know each other better via text and video chats, still with no true intention other than friendship at this point, until...

He came home for his sister's high school graduation. The friend group got together again, but by this time in his weeks at Duke, chatting back and forth with Melissa, he knew he liked her. But he didn't know if she felt the same way!

A few weeks later with his full return from Duke, Simon took a leap of faith and asked Melissa on a date. She said yes! We were both slightly reluctant due to our many years of friendship, but tried it out. This led to a few weeks of long distance, or what we call, the first leg of our dating story.

It was a lot of fun! We went back and forth between Boston and CT every other weekend, and got to have many fun adventures together. However, long distance was challenging (more so for Melissa), which led to them breaking things off for a time. It took about a week for Simon to reach out, not wanting things to be awkward for the friend group. Melissa was SO relieved, and they continued to remain friends for a few months. They picked back up like they had never stopped talking!

He was told to give up, to move on, but as Simon will admit now, he knew he was waiting for his wife! He told her he would follow her lead, and when she was ready, he would be too.

Flash forward to April of 2024... Simon was back in CT and working full time. They had started to spend time together again. Melissa had been toying with the idea for a while, and was finally ready to give dating another go. The saying "its not you, its me" is true in our case, Melissa just needed some time! On April 26, 2024, Melissa turned to Simon and said "I'm ready now". You could not wipe the smile off of Simons face!

This led to a whole year of dates, getting to know each other even more, and falling in love :)

This all led to the easiest "Yes!" ever! Exactly a year and one week (because Melissa had to work the weekend before) since April 26, 2024, on May 3, 2025, Simon asked Melissa to marry him!

From 2021 to 2025, until August 28, 2026 through the rest of our lives together, we have learned there is nothing more important than finding your best friend to spend your life with. We are so excited for you to celebrate with us!