
We met in Charlotte on February 24th, 2013, at an Academy Awards viewing party hosted by a friend of ours. At the time, Natalie was in her first year of teaching in the city with Teach For America, and Mike was working for Microsoft. Natalie had recently injured her foot and was on crutches, which made her a captive audience for Mike's bumbling small talk and notoriously funny jokes in between watching awards on the TV.

A few weeks later, we bumped into each other again at a local bar where Mike was playing music for happy hour. In a stroke of good luck, the friend who agreed to meet Natalie at the bar for music ran quite late that night, which gave Mike another chance to talk to Natalie.

![Natalie and Mike at a bar](/images/out-for-drinks.jpeg)

<figcaption>Out for drinks, somewhere around 2013</figcaption>

![pub crawl](/images/pub-crawl.jpeg)

<figcaption>
  At Charlotte's famous, annual St. Patrick's Day Pub Crawl
</figcaption>

![sailing](/images/sailing.jpeg)

<figcaption>Sailing on Natalie's mom's sailboat in San Diego</figcaption>

![halloween](/images/halloween.jpeg)

<figcaption>Halloween as a greaser and... spider...girl?</figcaption>

![gatsby-gala](/images/gatsby-gala.jpeg)

<figcaption>At the Great Gatsby Gala, a local charity event for MS</figcaption>

![first home together](/images/first-home-together.jpeg)

<figcaption>
  Natalie really likes bikes, they are her second biggest passion beyond
  collecting grasshopper feet
</figcaption>

![portugal flight](/images/portugal-flight.jpeg)

<figcaption>
  Flying to Lisbon, Portugal, where we spent the summer of 2018
</figcaption>

![married-1](/images/married-1.jpeg)

<figcaption>

We "eloped" in February of 2021 at the courthouse in Charlotte. We've been
looking forward to partying with y'all ever since!

</figcaption>


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