::the wedding :: our story

Our Story

As published in the Napa Valley Register

Garber-Lauborough
Sunday, July 27, 2003

Kristie Garber and Jason Lauborough of Novato announce their engagement with plans to marry May 15, 2004, at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens in Ft. Bragg.

The bride-elect is the daughter of Michael and Beatrice Garber of Bartlett, Tenn.

Kristie graduated from Bartlett High School in 1995. She is employed by LucasArts in San Rafael as a Quality Services Technician.

The groom-elect is the son of Alan and Judy Lauborough of Napa and the grandson of Stephen and Pat Crowe of St. Helena.

Jason graduated from Napa High School in 1994. He is employed by Nihilistic Software in Novato as a Quality Assurance Engineer.

I met him about five or six years ago in an IRC channel on Efnet called #mtgleague. At the time, I also frequented another channel that he was an op in (#mtg) and I would say that we really were nothing more than acquaintances at that time. Sometimes we'd talk.. we always had something nice to say to each other, and while I had a bit of a crush on him, we were both taken and nothing ever came of it. Eventually, #mtgleague died off and I moved on from my IRC days.

One day, as I was browsing some forums, I noticed a rather familiar handle. His handle had always been relatively unique so the chances of it being coincidence were slim to begin with, but upon further study, I found his post signed by his real name. Excited at the prospect of reconnecting, I sent him an email. He responded back rather quickly, just as thrilled to hear from me as I was to hear from him. We began talking about what we were doing with ourselves: our jobs, relationships, etc. Meanwhile, the crush was still there, but I was taken so I dismissed it as total folly. Besides, he had a girlfriend as well.

We kept casual contact. Whenever one of us was having a problem of some sort, the other would email a message of support and offer a shoulder as friends often do. Then, well, it happened. My relationship fell apart and my boyfriend at the time and I agreed to go our seperate ways, but decided to remain friends. This tore me up and my friend heard about it and offered me his support. He had already known things were getting difficult. Then, he told me that previously, he and his girlfriend had split up as well. We became our own little two person support group, I suppose.

Things progressed from there and in October after I had moved back to Memphis, I flew out to California and got to spend about two weeks with him. Those days proved to be the most meaningful and touching time of my life. I didn't want to come back to Memphis. I wanted to stay out there forever, spending my evenings on the beach with him. Getting on that plane home was the hardest thing I've ever done. My life hasn't been the same since. I was finally able to join him in California in August of 2002.