Carlos Austin Photography is proud to present Michelle and Dave getting married in May of 1998!

Little did I know as I called my friend, Michelle, on the night of August 19, 1992 and begged her to go out with me, that that night would forever change the course of my life. I was successful in talking her into driving over an hour each way to go out that night.

We went to a bar called Studebaker's in Rockville, Maryland. I had plans to meet another guy there later on in the evening. As we were waiting for him to arrive, Michelle saw someone that she knew and she dragged me over to him and his friends. As I scanned the bar, I didn't see Eric (the other guy), so I eagerly walked over to them. (As I had told Michelle that one of her friend's friends was very cute.) We walked over and said "hello" and I got a closer look. We only chatted for a minute, then continued on with our evening. Several hours later, Eric had not shown up, and we realized he wasn't going to; so, on my urging we went back over to Michelle's friends to chat with them a little more.

I had laryngitis that night, so all the of my communication with Michelle that evening had been through notes. After a few minutes of standing looking dumb, I finally decided that I ought to write this cute guy a note and explain why I was not saying much. (Good thing I did, because later I found out that he thought I was being a snob.) That evening as the bar was closing Dave asked for my phone number and we've been together ever since...

I will say that it hasn't always been easy for the two of us though. Two years after we began dating, I moved to Austin, Texas. We wound up dating long distance for more than two years. Finally, in November of 1996, Dave found a good job down here in his field and was able to move here without too much complication.

Our patience and devotion to one another was enough to hold us together until this time. Since November, we've been able to live together throughout all the day to day trials and tribulations and we've been successful at making our relationship grow and flourish. We look forward to a fun and exciting wedding and a wonderful and fulfilling marriage...

Michelle

November 1997

It was Wednesday, and my brother Mark was down from PA visiting a friend, Matt, and he called me up earlier in the day and asked if I wanted to meet Matt and he at "Studebaker's", a local bar in Rockville. It was a work night, but I said what the heck. I figured Studebaker's would be lame, but it was ladies' night so you never knew. I got there early, got a beer, and was walking around checking things out. It wasn't great, but it was OK, as far as the crowd went. We were the kind of guys who just liked to hang out and have a few beers anyway. I remember walking by this really attractive girl that caught my eye, who I know I made eye contact with, but she had a rose so I figured she was with someone. She really made an impression on me. I still remember what side I walked past her, where I was in the bar, where we were heading, you name it. That's all I remember until my brother showed up.

After Mark and Matt showed up, we were just sitting on stools by the dance floor for a while drinking beers and BS'ing about who knows what. That's usually what we did and this particular night, we were just in the hanging out mood. A girl that Matt knew from school came up to him and said hi, and a friend was with her. Both girls were named Michelle. It was the same girl that I spotted earlier (the friend that is). How lucky could I get. I didn't say much to her at first. I figured there were three of us and two of them, and Matt and Mark usually got the women, so I was just hanging and chatting with whoever. I think Matt was talking to Michelle number 1, and Mark and I were talking to Michelle number 2. They hung around awhile, and the truth is I don't know what we talked about. I do remember Mark made some comment like "I could go for that", but I don't know which girl he was talking about. Anyway, the girl I liked, couldn't talk because she had laryngitis, but she wrote stuff on a notepad. And I don't remember much of what she wrote, but I think it was just normal small talk.

After a while, I remember dancing to a fast song. It was "Finally", by someone whom I can't remember. Supposedly, she asked me, but I'll have to take her word for it because I don't remember. I also remember later dancing to a slow song, probably at the end of the night, although I had to be told what that song was. That's all I remember. There was no great conversation with this girl because she couldn't say much, but I still knew I really liked her. I don't remember saying anything to Michelle number 1, but I knew it was a stroke of luck that I met Michelle number 2. I never had gone to Studebaker's on a Wednesday before, and I wasn't really trying to meet girls. But I got Michelle's number after Matt and Mark left and walked both Michelles to the elevator and said good-bye. I called her the next day because I knew she was going out of town for a while and I wanted to talk to her first so she didn't forget me. This was really out of the ordinary because I never called girls that soon. I only got a machine. Anyway, I left a message, she didn't forget about me, and the rest is history. I met the love of my life on a night I was lucky to be out at a place I was lucky to be. The truth is I don't remember a lot of it that well, but parts of it are in my mind like it was yesterday.

Dave

November 1997

home