Alex grew up in Kensington, Maryland, and studied strategic advertising and fashion merchandising at VCU in Richmond. After graduation, she moved to Brooklyn and eventually made it all the way to San Francisco to help craft creative advertising campaigns for some of the world’s biggest brands.

During the pandemic, she decided it was time to move back to Richmond to be closer to friends and family (and, let’s be honest, for the affordable housing). A year later, she swiped right on Jake and Finn—only to realize they had already been introduced by mutual friends a few weeks earlier. On their first date, Alex told Jake her biggest goal in life was to live and work abroad and that if he wasn’t into that, they wouldn’t work out. Thankfully, he said he would be happy to move for the right person.

When she’s not rummaging through cookbooks or hunting for the best croissant, Alex is usually reading or mapping out their next adventure. She visits a new country every year and has made it to 34 so far.

Jake was born in the middle of a snowstorm, coincidentally on the same day and same hospital as Alex’s sister, Katie, in Silver Spring, Maryland. Jake grew up in Laurel, MD and moved to Fulton, MD in sixth grade. He attended Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA to study Architecture and also received a minor in Music (percussion). After school, Jake landed at an architecture firm in Richmond, VA, a city he had never even visited before. He quickly fell in love with the city he has called home from 2013-2025.

In 2019, Jake bought a house in Northside (Battery Park neighborhood) and adopted Finn, our high-energy, anxious, and incredibly loving chocolate lab.

In his free time, Jake is either golfing, training jiu-jitsu, listening to a record on his Dad’s old turntable, or watching “the game” (really any kind of sports) with his friends.

Some routines Jake & Alex love are taking Finn to the dog park every Wednesday morning, listening to local bands play at Scuffletown Park every Tuesday in the Summer, and eating at Stanley’s — seriously we are there at least once a week, it is THAT good.