Morgan + Jared's Love Story
We met in March 2021 in Birmingham, Al thanks to Match.com and Jared taking the first step to reach out and not giving up on me after I told him I was moving to FL very early in our conversations (like the 2nd or 3rd message back to him, haha). Started to casually date while I was in town, started getting more and more feelings for each other to where we started exclusively dating in May, but still with the “expiration date” of my move to FL to help out with my grandmother and to look into finally getting into the costuming world to start my career I really wanted to do. Come August, Jared was there for me when I left my job at the country club and even helped me dye my hair green (which has not been a natural color since). He helped me pack up my UHaul and I knew this man did love me when he would just encourage me to chase my dreams, but it sure did hurt to drive away.
Fast forward to January 2022 - Jared reached out to me because work has moved him to Miami and he was planning a day trip to Universal and wanted to see if I would be willing to meet up with him at the parks. Of course, I said yes! I wanted to not only see him again, but I wanted to see if my feelings were still there (spoiler alert: they were definitely still there!). We had a fun day of roller coasters and wandering around the Wizarding World. I hated to see him leave but was so happy to be talking to him again. Then in February, he came to the parks to celebrate his birthday and of course, I wanted to meet up again. He asked me if we could just go back to how we were in Birmingham that weekend as a birthday gift to him, and that sounded amazing to me as well. We got to just forget about the times we weren’t together and slipped right back into things so seamlessly. It felt good and we actually went on my dream Universal date without him realizing that I had always wanted to do this - a full day at the parks, gelato at Portofino Bay, and drinks at Velvet Bar in Hard Rock.
Jared also had reached out once a little before that in December to connect me with a friend of his who was looking for costuming help in the Orlando area. He connected me to my actual dream job working in costumes for a company I still work for today. During our park visit in January, we talked about my new job and his new living situation and job down in the Miami area. He found out that I actually go down to Miami a lot since we have a ship’s home port there which sparked his interest to try and meet up on one of my trips down his way. After my first time sailing with work and I had gotten back to Miami I spent the night at his place and it just felt so natural to just spend time with him. As I left to head back to Orlando he had asked me if we take the leap and become official despite the distance and the hard times that could come. Me being an idiot I didn’t give him an answer right away because I don’t always do well under pressure and had to assess the situation. Then literally 2 red light stops away from his townhome I replied to him saying how dumb I was and that of course I want to be with him and only him and I should have just said that to begin with. So on February 28th, we were finally able to say we were boyfriend and girlfriend and I was so excited.
After many commutes for both of us to Miami and Orlando to see each other as often as we could make work, plus tons of Facetime dates and video and voice notes when the other was busy on a work trip, we finally decided that Jared was going to move to Orlando in 2023. Took a little time to search a place out, and find the opportune time in both of our schedules/budgets to make that jump but we finally got there at the end of July when we got the keys to the apartment that was to become our home. Jared still had his townhome until November so we had plenty of time to slowly move things when we could to make it as easy on us as we could.
During our move, we had a planned trip to London so we could go see his sister graduate from Uni. It just so happened to be the day after my birthday so we made a whole week of it and got to escape from our normal day-to-day and spent our days drinking in pubs and sightseeing all over London. One day, Monday, September 11th to be specific, we ventured down to Brighton by train to go pay respects to his late friend Ian’s memorial. After that, we hit up some shops and lots of pubs and ended up at the Lord Nelson Inn pub on our way back to the train, mainly for the name since that is Jared’s last name. Coincidentally this was our 13th pub stop on our journey (my favorite/lucky number). We walked in and there weren’t that many people so we grabbed a pint (him a whiskey) and found a quiet corner away from anyone and just enjoyed the drinks and each other's company. Then Jared got to a point in our conversation and asked, “How about tomorrow we go ring shopping?” I was all smiles and just shook my head with excitement! He then followed up that question with “Then, I would like to know if you would do me the honor of being my wife?” At that point, I think my face was stuck with the biggest grin, and I of course said yes! The moment felt perfect. We then realized it was funny that it happened at our 13th pub and at the Nelson Inn because he did not have it premeditated - he actually was going to wait until my birthday next year when it fell on a Friday the 13th again. The next day we found a cute shop in Seven Dials where we bought each other placeholder engagement rings so that we had something to mark the occasion.
