In the summer of 2014 I met a girl at the beach - we quickly hit it off and 10 years later here we are! While that is a mostly true story, as with all good stories it wasn’t quite that linear.

Within weeks of meeting Jess, I knew I wanted to be with her, but wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to pull that off. My brilliant plan mostly involved staying in close proximity, with the hopes that my charm and wit would eventually win her over. We became good friends, and spent a lot of time together, mostly in larger groups.

There were a few inflection points where I thought I might actually be making headway.

At one point I volunteered to build a bar cart she had bought from West Elm. I pretended like it was way harder than it was - in an effort to be more impressively handy and to ultimately get to spend more time with her in her apartment in the South End in Boston. At the end of the project I was offered a beer and the door.

Over the course of the next several years as I got to know Jess more, my interest grew. I was always so impressed with her ability to be simultaneously driven and accomplished in her career but also incredibly fun to be around. While my feelings for Jess may have grown, the odds were not looking good! At this point it had become obvious to anyone BUT Jess where I stood. In an effort to humanely mitigate my inevitable disappointment, I was told by her friends, my friends and our mutual friends, that - “I was a great guy and Jess really liked me - as a friend - but I should let go, and move on”.

I briefly considered their counsel, but decided I knew better and would stay the course. And so in the summer of 2017, against all odds, Jess asked me on our first date…or so I thought.

Through Jess’s role at Spotify she had received VIP passes to a Dead and Co. concert at Fenway. She asked me to go with her, just the two of us. This was it! We had a great time at the concert. Afterwards I bought a $68 TShirt for my sister in an effort to show off - and Jess and I went to get ice cream. I was nervous and offered to walk her home. We made it about a third of the way and Jess turned to me and said….”I am good from here”. She gave me a friendly hug and went on her way. Apparently it was not a date.

In the fall of 2019 I introduced myself to Jess’s parents at a wedding farewell brunch in a backyard in Newport RI. I scraped together every ounce of brain power I could muster to try to sound intelligent and polished. We talked for over an hour about how esoteric insurance products have enabled the growth of various asset classes historically. I thought Tom might mention my brilliance to Jess and that would be the skeleton key. It was not.

In the spring of 2020 the world shut down. Jess and I were both living alone in Boston and New York respectively. We texted frequently, and at some point hatched a plan to put together a group trip to the Outer Banks for early June. Neither of us did any leg work other than conceptualize the trip. The trip ended up being four couples, Jess, and I. On my drive down to North Carolina I stopped and spent the night with a friend in Virginia Beach. I gave him a quick rundown of the group I was meeting up with and I called my shot. This was it.

The next week was a bit of a whirlwind - but we have been inseparable ever since. Within a week of leaving the beach Jess had met my extended family and childhood friends. Three weeks after that I was having dinner at the place we hope to see you all to celebrate our wedding in October. That bar cart I built? It’s in our living room of a home we bought together in Newport RI in 2022.

Good things come to those who wait or something like that - I would have waited another century for Jess.

We look forward to celebrating with you all in Chicago.

Registry