Our Story

Our story seems to be fated based on the events that led up to our relationship.

We met in April 2021, when a mutual friend brought us together, but initially neither of us were eager to meet the other. Charlie was currently hanging out with said mutual friend, with a hope of something beyond friendship, and Lily had not spoken to them in quite some time. On that fateful April evening, Lily received a karaoke-night invite from the friend of yesteryear. While Lily had some reservations about attending, it had been a long time since she had been out to socialize, so Lily decided to join her.

Lily hesitantly met at the friend’s apartment, where she was told a third friend would meet them - she worked at the karaoke bar and offered to drive them. The third friend, then a stranger, was Charlie.

Hilariously, Charlie was just as unhappy to meet Lily!

We proceeded to The Crack Fox, while both Charlie and Lily were operating unpleasantly. 

At some point in the night, Lily sang one of her favorite songs, “A Sunday Kind of Love” by Etta James. Unbeknownst to Lily, this was also a favorite of Charlie’s, and one she had been playing on repeat lately. Charlie remembers hearing Lily sing and all animosity went out the window! Lily snuck outside afterwards for some fresh air and Charlie came out to tell her how much she had enjoyed listening to Lily’s performance. After a brief exchange, they went back inside and Lily realized she really only wanted to keep talking to Charlie.

Charlie inquired with the mutual friend about Lily, and it turned out that they only lived down the street from each other. Next, Charlie found Lily on Facebook, beating Lily to it. Conversations quickly followed.

In our messages, we found that we had so many odd similarities: Charlie’s niece is named Lillyan, after her grandmother; we had the same childhood fantasy that maybe everyone on Earth is just a reality TV show for aliens; Charlie’s name is actually April, just like Lily’s mom, and much more.

Taco Tuesday rolled around, Charlie tried to bail on Lily and she absolutely forbid it! Instead, we went on our first “date” that night (although, Charlie did not think of it as one). We hung out more and more, continuing to connect and be goofy and find even more common interests like “The Office” and “Lord of the Rings”.

We went on another “date” to fly a kite and have a picnic on Art Hill. Lily even brought their family’s new puppy. Lily was hoping they’d move past friendship, but to no avail. When we were messaging later that night, Charlie commented on how cute Lily was and how she loved that we were friends. Lily quickly pulled a “Wolf on Wall Street” and told Charlie that she had no intention of us just being friends. Charlie was hesitant, as she had not been lucky in love as of late.

The next time we hung out, Lily decided to be bold and make a move. From there, we were no longer just friends and we made things official. This time, Lily beat Charlie to the punch.

Lily cleaned her apartment, wrote out how she felt in a card (since she is not good at being verbally “mushy”) and when Charlie walked in, Lily had candles lit and our song, “A Sunday Kind of Love” was playing.

From then on they were girlfriends. 

Since then, we have been ceaselessly enamored with each other and our relationship has only gotten stronger and deeper. While we’ve had our share of ups and downs, fights, moments of love, moments of doubt, moments of patience and of understanding, we fell more and more in love.

In November 2023, after two-and-a-half years together, Charlie asked Lily to marry her in the Japanese Gardens at the Missouri Botanical Gardens (Lily’s favorite place & part of the park!). Charlie customized the most beautiful ring for Lily (a ring that she specifically said needed to look like she had gone on a quest through an enchanted forest and had to bargain a lady of the lake for - so dramatic!). While the proposal was so clumsy and took a lot of re-maneuvering on Charlie’s behalf, due to it being very busy that day, Lily wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

Lily was elated and looking forward to officially spending the rest of her life with Charlie.

We have our own difficulties, battles, and frustrations, but we would not want to go through life (and everything that comes our way) with anyone other than the person who has never stopped showing the peaceful, tender, and patient love that we’ve craved our whole lives.

We have made each other better in every way that two people can, and will continue to do so ‘til death and after.