Ashley’s perspective:

 

It was February 6, 2016, a cold winter evening and I was out with friends. My best friend Holly was in town and wanted to go to a “party”.  It was her friend Nicholas’ birthday.   She had been mentioning Nic to me for quite some time. Ironically we had crossed paths a few times before this particular evening, but not enough to make any lasting impressions. So it was nice to finally meet this friend of hers.

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We arrived at the Georgian Terrace hotel in downtown Atlanta about five deep. As we are walking into the hotel a group of guys are walking toward us.  Holly shouts,  “Hey Nic!”  My thoughts: Well, I be danged! Nic and his friends were about to leave the party he had literally just invited us to. Wow. Nic hadn’t even remembered inviting Holly in the first place. He was nice and decided to turn around so we could all go back upstairs. When we got to the room we listened to music, and talked mostly. I sat on a small chair and Nic decided to squeeze next to me. He told a bunch of corny jokes but I laughed and he told me he was from Crenshaw. I’m from Crenshaw so I got super excited. I began questioning him about what area and discovered it was a fluke lol. He was not from Crenshaw. He ended up spitting some game and kissing me on my cheek and then passing out drunk in the chair, we took funny pictures of him and then left. The next day Holly said he wanted my number and the rest is history!

 

Nic’s perspective:

 

It was February 6th ; my 25th birthday party I was having at the Georgian Terrace Hotel. I’ve been there the whole day with random people, Brian, Antoine, and Marco were there and a bunch of other people. It was my birthday weekend so we were partying pretty much the entire day. At some point in the day I talked to my friend Holly Fuller and she and her friends were gonna come through and celebrate with us. I honestly forgot this like 10 minutes after inviting them, but it’s very important. So we’re drinking and it’s getting close to 10pm so we decide to go to the club. At this point it was going to be a car full of us. So we go to the lobby and start walking to the cars and randomly a group of girls stop in front of us. So me being the Mac daddy king suave killa I am, walk up to the car and look up and notice it’s Holly. On God I forgot she was even coming so she and her friends were bouta get dubbed. Anyways, they go park and we wait on them so we can go back to the hotel room to turn up instead of going out.

 

So I see this fine little cup of coffee and had to shoot my shot. 

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(Side Note:  *this around the time straight outta Compton came out, and I was real drunk so I was on some Ima Crenshaw Crip Loc bullshit but it was all fun and jokes)

 

So I walked up, talked to Ashley and was telling her I’m from Crenshaw and I’m deep in Cali but really I’m from Cherokee County, Georgia. Who would believe she was really from Cali, Crenshaw and Slauson. But she thought I was from out there til I didn’t know any streets.  We  talked all night and had a good time. I gave her a Prince Charming kiss and the rest was history. Holly got me Ashley’s number and now we’re here and I’m so glad they made it just in time because they were gonna  get left if they got there 5 mins later. 

The crazy thing is; that’s the first time we actually met and talked, but it’s been plenty of times we were supposed to meet. We were both at  my sister Jordan’s big party but didn’t remember, she came over to my apartment with Holly but I was gone when they got there.  So I just got them to hang out with my friend Zack. We were at Holly's graduation and leaving party for Cali but we never noticed.

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BUT  God has a crazy way to put someone in the right spot at the right time and that’s what he did. Because all that time we weren’t ready for each other yet, God put us in each other's life at the perfect time when we both needed each other the most, And I’ve loved every minute of it.

 

 

First Date: About three weeks after our first encounter we went on a date to Top Golf, Sam’s seafood in Acworth and then to the movies to see “The Witch”.  It was the worst movie we had ever seen but we enjoyed each other’s company so much it didn’t even matter. Top golf was super fun and we both knew after this date there would be another.

 

 

 

The Proposal:

Nic had known for a while that he wanted to propose but wanted to wait until he was good and ready. Four years into the relationship on Mother’s Day 2020, May 10th we headed to visit my grandmother in Florida. It was the beginning of COVID so Nic suggested I do a Zoom call with all of my cousins so that we could all tell my grandmother happy Mother’s Day at the same time. I scheduled the meeting with my cousins about a week in advance so we were all prepared and ready to go. We all hopped on the call from different cities and states around 2pm. My grandma was surprised and I was even more surprised to see my friend Maritza on the call. I’m like “heyyy, how’d you end up here.” So I knew something was fishy. Also Nic looked super antsy about something so I figured something was up. The rest of our family and friends all joined the zoom call where Nic got down on one knee while I stood with my grandmother and holding Zhuri. It was a super sweet, and surreal moment. Now we can’t wait to finally walk down the aisle together in July!

 

 

Daughter, Zhuri Rucker

Zhuri is Ashley and Nicholas’s beautiful two year old. She has so much personality and has brought so much joy into our lives. She’s the most spunky, stylish, funny, and intelligent child that any parent could dream of having. We couldn’t imagine doing life without her and can’t wait to have her as the flower girl on our special day