Highlights and Full Gallery by the illustrious Rachel Smith & Brea Shaw
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Wedding Archive: Our Story
January 10th, 2016: You have matched! Rachel and Alec both clicked “like” on the dating app Coffee Meets Bagel. They start messaging. Rachel liked Alec’s cute smile and Alec liked her passion for her career and friends.
January 21, 2016: Rachel and Alec meet for the first time at the most romantic of date locations: the now closed Dinosaur BBQ in Harbor East. The first sign that this relationship might go somewhere was that first evening. They met at 6:30pm and when they looked up from their meal and conversation, the restaurant was closing around them, nearly three hours later. After all that time Alec really had to go to the bathroom but didn’t want to awkwardly end the date so he ran back to his car and visited his cousin Tina at Red Star down the street. After relieving himself, he shared his first date experience with Tina and was hopeful for the next date.
Snowmaggedon 2016: It snowed, a lot. Our second date plan was to go to Alma Cocina the next week, but the weather had other ideas. Luckily Restaurant Week was extended and the date did eventually happen on January 27th. The date did not end in a kiss which disappointed Rachel. This would be the last time Alec left Rachel waiting. After this moment, the script flipped.
February 4th, 2016: Alec drove to Hagerstown after work to visit Rachel for dinner at El Ranchero. The date nearly didn’t happen since Alec had an important meeting the next day and the part he was working on was not quite working right and wasn’t fully tested. Luckily Alec was working with Jun and they got everything done just in time for him to leave and make the date. After the date Alec did give Rachel a parting kiss.
March 1st, 2016: Alec was invited to trivia with Rachel’s friends for the first time. This became a weekly ritual in their relationship. Alec typically doesn’t know much trivia but does sometimes know some of the more obscure questions. There was a question about the SR-71 and the team was unsure the answer. Alec pointed at his Lockheed Martin fleece and offered the answer, making him more than dead weight. Thanks trivia question writer!
Sometime in March, 2016: Rachel’s friend Christy coins the term “Exclusive Male Friend” or EMF for short to describe Alec’s relationship to Rachel since she still wouldn’t say they were dating.
March 18th, 2016: Rachel’s Match Day. There was a chance Rachel could move to a new city for her pediatric residency and the status of their relationship was uncertain. Alec spent the morning looking at the cost of flights to visit and then left work early to have lunch with his friend Jeanne at Miss Shirley’s before heading to the post Match Festivities. When picking up Jeanne, he yelled out to her “She got Hopkins!”, which he found out by text just a few moments before.
After lunch, Alec drove to Anna and Brian’s house, the location of the Match Day Celebration. It was here Alec met Rachel’s family for the first time. Right before meeting the family, Alec got off the phone with his mother to tell her the news. He told her something along the lines of “well now that she’s going to be local, I think there really might be something there. This is one to pay attention to.”
March 26th, 2016: Rachel joined the HQH to a Mutemath concert. This was their first concert together.
April 17th, 2016: A date marked in Alec’s Calendar as “Rachel is super cool #neverforget.” After going to the Pirate Festival in Fells Point with Anna and Brian, Rachel *finally* admitted they were dating and called Alec her boyfriend.
May 15th, 2016: Rachel asks Alec to be her date to her final Med School Prom. This would be the first time the two got dressed up together.
July 1st, 2016: Rachel starts pediatric residency. It’s the start of long hours and stressful days. Thankfully, Alec is there to support Rachel as she navigated being a new doctor.
October 2016: We spend our first vacation together in Florida. Alec accidentally didn’t change both of their flights but noticed and corrected the situation with a single seat to spare. They ventured to Harry Potter World – known as Universal Studios Island of Adventure to the rest of the word – and Epcot at Disney. Alec rode Escape from Gringotts 6 times without complaint after multiple “agains” from Rachel. They both drank and ate around the world for Epcot’s food and wine festival. It was Alec’s first taste of Rachel’s “Travel Dictatorship”
December 2016: Rachel meets Alec’s family. With 21 cousins to keep track of its a sizable crew. Luckily, Alec drew Rachel a family tree to prepare. My Big Fat Greek Wedding has some truth to it, opa!
January 21st, 2017: Alec and Rachel celebrate their one year of dating what became a staple location for them – Sotta Sopra.
April 1st, 2017: We moved in together, no joke. Rachel and Alec move 7 doors down from her old apartment unit. After multiple crates of Rachel’s shoes and boxes of Alec’s tech, they are officially roommates! Rachel worked that day (of course). She left living in one apartment and and came back to another. Thanks to our friends and Rachel’s family for their help with the move!
May 8th, 2017: Alec and Rachel head back to Florida, this time for a cruise that also went to The Bahamas. It was Alec’s first time parasailing and snorkeling. Rachel got days at the beach and Alec got all the Macallan he asked for; a perfect trip.
August 2017: Alec visit’s Rachel in Arizona as she worked on an Indian Reservation near the Grand Canyon. On his way to the airport, Alec was hiking at Sunset Crater National Monument where he got a call from APL telling him he’d be getting a job offer, which he would later accept.
December 3rd, 2017: We visit Rachel’s college friend Julia in New York. While there, Rachel agrees to look at engagement rings with Alec for the first time.
December 31st, 2017: Rachel and Alec attend Alec’s cousin Tina’s wedding. This is Rachel’s first Greek wedding and her wedding fever begins.
January 19th, 2018: Alec and Rachel spend the weekend in Williamsburg, one of Rachel’s favorite places, with some of our favorite people, Anna and Brian. Unbeknownst to Rachel, it is here Alec gets the first CAD drawings of the ring. Anna even created cover for Alec so he could call Rhoula back.
March 17, 2018: Engaged! For those enthralled readers Alec has an entire blog post about the planning of this event!
May 2018: Our first “across the pond” Trip Together! Rachel presented a poster at a pediatric conference in Toronto, Canada which kicked off the “Tri-Country” Adventure. After they experienced Niagara Falls up close, we explored London, fueling Rachel’s royal family obsession, and tasted a bit of beer and whiskey in Dublin.
Our relationship has been filled with wonderful family, friends, travel, food, and laughter. We look forward for many more years to come!.