Our Story

Have you been avoiding the internet for the past nine years to keep this wedding spoiler-free? You can rest easy now as we get you up to speed on everything you need to know about us before the big day!

The First Chapter

We met back in 2014, when both of us were working in the books division at National Geographic (Michelle as an editorial assistant and Patrick as a photo assistant). In the moments when we weren’t making field guides to the birds of North America and coffee table photo books, the two of us became friends.

Every Friday after work we played bocce ball with a few coworkers. We realized just how much we had in common over many happy hours on the artificial turf at Black Jack. Our relationship was built on a foundation of terrible puns, good photography, long bike rides, and spicy Thai food.

As time went on, we both found more excuses to visit each other from our respective sides of the office (it’s weird how often the photocopier closest to each of our desks “wasn’t working”). This went on for… a while, before we made our mutual crushes known. If you had to put a date to it, you could say that our relationship was smooched brought into existence in January 2015.

Big Milestones

  • Moved to New York

    In 2019, Michelle got a new job that brought us to New York City. We rented the smallest U-Haul we could, packed up all of our stuff, and drove it up to Brooklyn.

  • Got a pup!

    A few months after moving, we adopted Gandalf from Badass Animal Rescue. When the pandemic kept us inside for most of 2020, our wise little dog kept us sane and grounded. (She also chewed up a door frame but that’s a story for another time.)

  • Moved back to D.C.

    In 2022, Patrick got a new job as a product manager for US Refugee and Asylum, bringing us back to our roots—this time with a much larger truck. We were sad to leave Brooklyn, but excited to be back in the same place as so many of our family and friends!

April 29, 2023

We got engaged!

When we decided to get married, we wanted to take the next step in our lives together somewhere special, and Shenandoah National Park is one of our favorite places in the world.

On a Saturday morning in April, we took a trip down a very foggy Skyline Drive. We pulled off at a spot where we had gone hiking on our first trip to Shenandoah years before. After a short walk, we exchanged letters that each of us had written the night before and then exchanged rings. (Patrick’s was an onion ring!)