I discovered Virginia’s motto, “Virginia is for Lovers,” to be quite true, in fact. On January 21, 2009, while sitting by the fireplace in our 100-year old farmhouse, my boyfriend of 3.5 years, asked me to marry him!

Michael and I met in May of 2005 when I decided to relocate from my hometown of St. Louis, MO to Richmond, VA. I was interested in pursuing my MFA degree and, although I had applied for the graduate program at VCU in Richmond, I hadn’t been accepted. The strange thing is that, although I was accepted into two other graduate programs (CSU and SCAD), a string of ‘meaningful coincidences’ left me with an overwhelming desire to move to Richmond instead.

I decided to move to Richmond to take undergrad classes at VCU and reapply for the graduate program later. So I contacted the then-head of the metals department, Jim Meyer, and arranged to fly to Richmond to meet with him. I was only in town for a day and a half and had to, not only set-up classes with VCU, but also, to find (and sign a lease for) the place where I would live when I moved half-way across the country.

As fate would have it, the day I met with Jim Meyer at VCU also happened to be the day of the Genesis Design competition held for VCU’s metal/jewelry students at Schwartzchild Jewelers. Jim invited me to the opening and it was there that I met Michael.

Six weeks later, I loaded all of my possessions into a medium-sized U-Haul truck, and with the help of my brother, I made the cross-country trek to Virginia. Michael and I had talked on the phone and emailed almost daily during those six weeks after we met, so when I finally arrived in Richmond at my new apartment, he was there waiting to help me carry my belongings up three flights of stairs in the mid-summer heat.

I am truly blessed to have met my life partner. And I must say, from my perspective, Virginia has definitely lived up to it’s motto: “Virginia is For Lovers.”

Here’s a pic of our wedding rings - one of a kind pieces, designed by C. James (Jim) Meyer himself.

We are getting married in Virginia on May 22, 2010!