Our Story
Our First Date at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
A lot of things had to go wrong in order for us to even meet… we didn’t grow up in the same town, go to the same schools, or have overlapping friends. Both of our plans had to go way off-the-rails and spin in the same sideways direction, at the same time, in roughly the same place, for us to even become friends... but that’s exactly what happened!
Now, just shy of eight years later, that cold January morning where we first met in an early morning drawing class seems so far away. We’d be lying if we claimed that first meeting had us seeing hearts, stars, or other fantastic shapes floating from our heads. We were both half-awake, Debbie was deathly shy, and Mark was starting college again for the second time. It took weeks to be Facebook friends, months before we saw each other outside of class, and years before we started dating.
But others saw this coming way before us. The announcement of our relationship was met with a chorus of “it’s about time” from friends and classmates in Kansas City. No one in Milwaukee has ever known us apart from one another. And when asking for your addresses, the recurring assumption was centered around wedding invites.
So, while we may not have seen emojis fly during our first awkward meeting, we do see them every day now, and that’s a special kind of magic we hope lasts forever.