Wesley moved to Austin, Texas, from Tomball (Houston), Texas, in 1999 to go to college. Rachele moved to Austin from San Antonio, Texas, in 2005 to take over an apartment from her sister. We met in October of 2006 while Wes was finishing up his last semester at UT. Both of us were dating other people who were friends with each other. We actually first saw each other across the living room of Wes’ girlfriend’s condo. We both agreed we had an instant connection. A few months later, when we were both single—in the early hours of January 7, 2007—we coupled up while stranded at a 90s party during an ice storm.
We lived together for a couple of years before Rachele went to graduate school at UT in 2009 while working full time. We enjoyed hanging out with each other when she wasn’t busy with school or work. It was so fun to get to attend UT football games together during the three fall semesters that Rachele was in classes. After Rachele graduated in May 2012, we took our first big trip together: A road trip around Alaska, Yukon and British Columbia. We had an amazing time over those two weeks and hoped we would get to do it again some day.
The next year, Rachele had saved up enough to buy the house where we have been living together since October 2013. We enjoy renovating and maintaining the house and yard, turning this place into our home. We are so lucky to live on a cul-de-sac (cove) with amazing neighbors on all sides. We are parents to four cats: Luna, Stellan, Shadow and Brienne. We both work remotely as accessibility engineers, meaning we make sure websites and mobile applications work for people with disabilities. We got married on our 19th anniversary and will continue to reside in Austin. Both the bride and groom are keeping their last names.
