Our Story
Our Story
We met in Philly...
We grew up 15 miles from each other, and even shared many mutual friends, but we had to move 100 miles away from home to finally meet.
In the summer of 2013, we were signed up to run a 5K race in Fairmount Park as a part of the same team, comprised of mutual friends who all grew up in Schuylkill County, and one of Rocky’s college friends who is a Philadelphia native.
We continued to bump into each other around the city in clubs and train stations. But, it wasn’t until Samantha was without a car for several weeks, due to an accident, that we finally had a chance to spend time together and get to know one another. Samantha had an hour in Center City Philadelphia between trains on her way home from work, and asked Rocky if he would like to grab dinner sometime.
We had dinner, and the rest is history…
Electric Run - Hong Kong Fireworks Company - 7/20/2013
Best Friends
Best Friends
He Proposed
July 31, 2015
He Proposed
July 31, 2015
On July 31, 2015 Rocky told Samantha that he received a “special gift from his boss for Systems Administrator Day". The "gift" was a reverse geocache, which gives the distance from a pre-determined location via GPS. The box was also topped with a QR code that took us to his "boss's website". The website contained a message and a clue- "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this..." and "Head towards my house." So, after work, that's what we did. We quickly changed and were ready for an adventure.
We drove to his boss’s house and the box said we were still 3 miles away. We then started guessing... "the Wynnewood train station- no", "Saint Joseph's University- no", "Joe's Crab Shack- no", "The Mann Center- we're finally getting closer!"
We eventually ended up at the Belmont Plateau across from the Mann Center, where the GPS triggered the box to finally pop open. Much to Samantha’s surprise, a plastic Easter egg filled with rice and a little blue box sat waiting inside. Before Samantha could even realize what was happening, Rocky was down on one knee and saying her full name. If it wasn't for the continuously recording GoPro, which Rocky cleverly convinced Samantha to use for “documenting their geocaching adventure”, we don't think we would even remember what Rocky said, or how Samantha responded.
It took months of planning, but Rocky really did knock it out of the park. Samantha had no idea it was coming!
She Said Yes
She Said Yes
I Do!
October 21, 2016
I Do!
October 21, 2016
Immediately after getting engaged, we began planning our dream wedding day. We picked the perfect fall date in 2017, toured several venues, and decided on caterers. Everything began falling into place. But, during the summer of 2016, we started to get antsy. It was too late to move the whole wedding, but by that time we had both already thought “why wait”...so we decided to get married “early”.
On October 21, 2016, in the presence of our immediate family, we were married in a simple self-uniting ceremony at the Belmont Plateau, where we first crossed paths in Philadelphia, and where Rocky proposed. We kept the wedding ceremony and reception in place for the next year to celebrate with our extended family and friends.
Please enjoy these photographs of our marriage ceremony by Dave Justo Productions.
