How It Started
Our Story
From a Ray Charles cover to the shores of Wolfgangsee.
Each node tells a chapter of Kassi & Doug's story. Click to read, browse photos, and watch videos.
Kassi
&
Doug
Select a chapter to explore
2011 to Present
Germany & Austria
Germany and Austria have been woven into their story from the very beginning. Long before they traveled there together, Kassi spent years exploring the region: first as a visitor, then to learn the language, later to teach its culture and history, then on a Fulbright fellowship, and eventually simply because she loved returning. Along the way, she built friendships that have endured for more than a decade, from fellow Fulbright scholars to Clara, Rupert, and Steffi, who welcomed her back time and again and helped make Germany feel like a second home.
When Kassi and Doug began traveling there together, they spent time exploring Bavaria and northern Austria: hiking mountain trails with unforgettable views, lingering over coffee and cake in alpine cafés, sipping locally brewed Hefeweizen at rustic Almen, and spending one particularly perfect afternoon doing absolutely nothing except drifting across the Chiemsee in a small boat.
In 2019, they traveled to Holzkirchen to meet Doug's extended family, the Späths. Doug's grandfather emigrated from Bavaria. Seeing the villages, fields, and mountains through the lens of family history transformed a place they loved into a place that felt, in some small way, like home. It was one more thread tying their story to this corner of the world.
2015 to Present
Music
Music has been woven through their story from the very beginning.
Although Kassi and Doug both attended the same speed-dating event, they never actually spoke there. Instead, a friend of Kassi's recommended Doug to Kassi on the strength of his Australian accent, and Kassi quietly penciled his name onto the bottom of her printed list of people she had actually met that evening, adding a handwritten "yes."
Later, Doug learned that Kassi was interested in getting to know him. Since they had never actually met, he did what any curious person might do and looked her up online to figure out who she was.
In the process, he discovered that she studied German, taught language and culture, and occasionally performed music. One of the recordings he found was Kassi singing “Georgia” by Ray Charles. The song made an impression. Years later, it would become unexpectedly fitting when they eventually moved to Atlanta together.
Music nearly brought them together on their first official music date as well. Doug played guitar and had previously been in a band. Kassi sang. The plan seemed straightforward. Unfortunately, Kassi lost her voice entirely beforehand. Instead of playing music together, they spent the evening listening, talking, and sharing favorite songs.
More than a decade later, music remains one of the constants in their lives. They still sing together, play guitar, discover new artists, and send each other songs that say things words sometimes cannot. Whether in the background or center stage, music has always been part of the story.
Before they ever met, Doug found this video of Kassi singing “Georgia” by Ray Charles. Years later, they would move to Georgia together.
Kassi and Cameron singing, with Doug on guitar.
First time Doug met Kassi's parents in 2015. Her dad is recording.
2014 to Present
German Shepherds
Before there was a wedding to plan, there were German Shepherds.
Lawine has been with Kassi since 2014, predating nearly every chapter of this story. Intelligent, opinionated, fiercely competitive, and endlessly loyal, she has climbed mountains, swum in lakes, visited university classrooms, and accompanied Kassi through nearly every major milestone of adulthood. She learned commands in both German and English and spent years helping Kassi teach German by demonstrating them for students.
Even as a puppy, Lawine always had a plan. She treated containment as a personal challenge. She escaped crates, climbed gates, squeezed through impossibly small openings, and routinely ignored everyone's assumptions about what dogs were supposed to do. At just sixty-five pounds, she is the smallest German Shepherd in the family, but she considers herself personally responsible for protecting Kassi, Doug, Leo, and anyone else she loves. She has a habit of snapping her teeth together like an alligator when excited and prefers to fall asleep while watching Kassi. Doug calls this activity "Kass-TV." Brave, extraordinarily clever, and completely devoted to her people, she would happily follow Kassi anywhere.
Leo came later, a stray from Franklin County Shelter and the first dog Kassi and Doug chose together. When they adopted him, he was so skinny that they briefly wondered whether he might be a Belgian Malinois. Leo quickly disproved that theory by developing a profound love of food.
He is a perpetual optimist, usually found carrying a toy, charming strangers into saying hello, or launching himself into someone's personal space with great enthusiasm and very little awareness of his own size. Beneath the goofiness is an exceptionally gentle dog who loves people, loves other dogs, and believes that everyone should be friends.
Leo is also a dedicated collector of tennis balls. At dog parks, he considers any unattended tennis ball fair game and somehow always manages to leave with a larger collection than he arrived with. His devotion to tennis balls is so complete that Doug could steer him through life simply by holding one overhead.
Food ranks a close second. Leo will perform an astonishing variety of tricks in exchange for treats and occasionally supplements his diet by discreetly sampling whatever plants happen to be growing along the sidewalk. Azaleas are a particular favorite.
Kassi had seen photos of Anja years earlier. With her creamy white paws, pale cheeks, and a single chocolate-chip spot on her forehead, she was unmistakable. After Anja's owner died in a freak accident, she was auctioned under the wrong name and age and eventually ended up with someone who intended to breed her. With the help of a friend they had only just met, Kassi and Doug drove from Columbus to West Virginia and brought her home.
They soon discovered she had breast cancer. They brought her home anyway.
Anja was a warrior. Shortly after arriving, she underwent major surgery to remove cancerous masses. Most dogs would have taken that as a sign to rest. Anja disagreed.
The day after Christmas, she escaped and led half the town of St. Clairsville on a deer-chasing adventure before returning home on her own at four o'clock in the morning with ice packed between her toes after spending the night outdoors in snow drifts several feet deep on the coldest day of the year. She adored Doug, was endlessly gentle with people, and had a special talent for teaching rowdy puppies better manners. Cancer eventually claimed her, but not before she squeezed nearly two more years of adventures, mischief, and love into the time she had left.
A DNA test later confirmed what Kassi already knew: Anja was Lawine's mother. Suddenly, some things made a lot more sense. Lawine never cuddled anyone voluntarily, except Anja.
The dogs have been part of every move, every apartment, every house, every celebration, and every difficult season. They taught Kassi and Doug responsibility. They gave them a shared purpose. They made unfamiliar places feel like home.
Looking back, it is difficult to imagine their story without muddy paws, dog hair, emergency vet visits, road trips in the Yukon XL, and three extraordinary German Shepherds.
Where We Come From
Family
They grew up just a few hours apart but in very different worlds. Kassi was born in Moundsville, West Virginia, and grew up in nearby St. Clairsville, Ohio, about an hour west of Pittsburgh. Much of her childhood revolved around music. She loved singing, performing in show choir, and listening to just about everything. When she wasn't writing or performing music, she was on a softball field or outside climbing trees and adventuring.
Doug grew up in Bexley, Ohio, where he spent countless hours outside with friends. He played on his high school's state championship soccer team alongside his best friend, Chris Fahey. Music was important to him, too. He taught himself guitar, spent years playing, and eventually performed in a band called Talk of the Moon.
Kassi grew up with her younger brother, Bryce, who has managed to love and relentlessly terrorize her since he was old enough to speak, which happened remarkably and unfortunately early. Doug is the oldest of three and grew up with his younger sister, Liza, and younger brother, Nick, in a close-knit family.
Although their childhoods looked different, both grew up surrounded by families who encouraged curiosity, hard work, generosity, and caring deeply for the people around them. Those lessons, and the people who taught them, continue to shape the life they are building together.
Atlanta
Georgia
Years after Doug first heard Kassi sing "Georgia," they moved to Atlanta together. The song that brought them together eventually lent its name to the state where they would build another chapter of their life.
Atlanta quickly became home. They fell in love with the city's extraordinary food, its seemingly endless canopy of trees, and the warmth of the people they met here. "The city in a forest" turned out to be more than a slogan. Even Kassi, who remains deeply suspicious of heat and humidity, has come to appreciate springtime azaleas, summer evenings spent wandering slowly beneath the trees, and the rhythm of life in the South.
Georgia is also where they put down roots. It is where Doug began residency, where Kassi began her career as a software engineer, and where they built a small community of friends. Over the years, Atlanta has become not just the place they live, but the place where they belong.
2023
Tegernsee
Kassi is notoriously difficult to surprise. Doug is famously honest and literal. Naturally, this meant he decided to plan an elaborate international deception.
It began with clues pointing to Vermont, one of Kassi's favorite places. Then came a series of increasingly convincing misdirects suggesting Portland, Oregon. Assisted by an elite team of co-conspirators consisting of Lynne, Karly, and Clara and some extra friendly Delta agents, Doug coordinated time off, planned an entire trip in secret, and somehow managed to guide Kassi through the airport wearing noise-canceling headphones and improvised "blinders" without revealing their destination.
Only after they were seated on the plane did he finally tell her the truth: they were headed to Munich.
After a day exploring Munich's Christmas markets, they boarded a train for Tegernsee. The journey passed through Holzkirchen, where Doug had first met his Bavarian relatives years earlier. For Kassi, the surrounding region was already deeply familiar from years spent living, studying, teaching, and returning to Bavaria. By the time they arrived at the lake, it felt less like a destination and more like a place where several threads of their story were coming together.
The next morning, they took a gondola to the top of the Wallberg overlooking Tegernsee. They had already rented sleds for the journey back down the mountain and were becoming increasingly concerned about whether that had been a good idea.
Standing at the summit, with the lake spread out below them, Doug decided it was best to propose before attempting what appeared to be a spectacularly dangerous sled ride down the mountainside.
Kassi said yes.
The sledding adventure ended more successfully than expected, followed by a celebratory Bavarian dinner, schnapps, and phone calls home. It remains one of their favorite adventures together.
The engagement story, in Doug's wordsJune 2027
Wolfgangsee
In June 2027, Kassi and Doug will marry on the shores of Wolfgangsee, surrounded by the people they love most. Wolfgangsee embodies so much of what they love about this part of the world: afternoons spent on the water, alpine cafés and bakeries, mountain railways, soaring peaks, and villages where life moves a little more slowly.
Although Wolfgangsee itself will be a new discovery for them, it feels like a natural home for the next chapter of a story shaped by years spent exploring Bavaria, Austria, and the Alps together. June 2027 will be their first opportunity to share that love of the region with the people who matter most.
Photo: C.Stadler/Bwag, CC BY-SA 4.0
2015 to Present
Becoming
Much of their relationship unfolded alongside graduate school, research, medicine, and career changes. During those years, Doug completed his Master's degree, graduated from medical school, and matched into Emory Radiology. Kassi earned her Master's degree, lived abroad in Berlin and later in Munich, completed her doctorate, published her research, and eventually made the transition from academia into software engineering.
All of the milestones that shaped their adult lives happened while they were together. There were exams and interviews, dissertations and applications, moves across states and across oceans, career changes, and countless long conversations about what came next. Looking back, what they remember most is not any single accomplishment, but having each other for all of it.
Germany and Austria have been woven into their story from the very beginning. Long before they traveled there together, Kassi spent years exploring the region: first as a visitor, then to learn the language, later to teach its culture and history, then on a Fulbright fellowship, and eventually simply because she loved returning. Along the way, she built friendships that have endured for more than a decade, from fellow Fulbright scholars to Clara, Rupert, and Steffi, who welcomed her back time and again and helped make Germany feel like a second home.
When Kassi and Doug began traveling there together, they spent time exploring Bavaria and northern Austria: hiking mountain trails with unforgettable views, lingering over coffee and cake in alpine cafés, sipping locally brewed Hefeweizen at rustic Almen, and spending one particularly perfect afternoon doing absolutely nothing except drifting across the Chiemsee in a small boat.
In 2019, they traveled to Holzkirchen to meet Doug's extended family, the Späths. Doug's grandfather emigrated from Bavaria. Seeing the villages, fields, and mountains through the lens of family history transformed a place they loved into a place that felt, in some small way, like home. It was one more thread tying their story to this corner of the world.
Music has been woven through their story from the very beginning.
Although Kassi and Doug both attended the same speed-dating event, they never actually spoke there. Instead, a friend of Kassi's recommended Doug to Kassi on the strength of his Australian accent, and Kassi quietly penciled his name onto the bottom of her printed list of people she had actually met that evening, adding a handwritten "yes."
Later, Doug learned that Kassi was interested in getting to know him. Since they had never actually met, he did what any curious person might do and looked her up online to figure out who she was.
In the process, he discovered that she studied German, taught language and culture, and occasionally performed music. One of the recordings he found was Kassi singing “Georgia” by Ray Charles. The song made an impression. Years later, it would become unexpectedly fitting when they eventually moved to Atlanta together.
Music nearly brought them together on their first official music date as well. Doug played guitar and had previously been in a band. Kassi sang. The plan seemed straightforward. Unfortunately, Kassi lost her voice entirely beforehand. Instead of playing music together, they spent the evening listening, talking, and sharing favorite songs.
More than a decade later, music remains one of the constants in their lives. They still sing together, play guitar, discover new artists, and send each other songs that say things words sometimes cannot. Whether in the background or center stage, music has always been part of the story.
Before they ever met, Doug found this video of Kassi singing “Georgia” by Ray Charles. Years later, they would move to Georgia together.
Kassi and Cameron singing, with Doug on guitar.
First time Doug met Kassi's parents in 2015. Her dad is recording.
Before there was a wedding to plan, there were German Shepherds.
Lawine has been with Kassi since 2014, predating nearly every chapter of this story. Intelligent, opinionated, fiercely competitive, and endlessly loyal, she has climbed mountains, swum in lakes, visited university classrooms, and accompanied Kassi through nearly every major milestone of adulthood. She learned commands in both German and English and spent years helping Kassi teach German by demonstrating them for students.
Even as a puppy, Lawine always had a plan. She treated containment as a personal challenge. She escaped crates, climbed gates, squeezed through impossibly small openings, and routinely ignored everyone's assumptions about what dogs were supposed to do. At just sixty-five pounds, she is the smallest German Shepherd in the family, but she considers herself personally responsible for protecting Kassi, Doug, Leo, and anyone else she loves. She has a habit of snapping her teeth together like an alligator when excited and prefers to fall asleep while watching Kassi. Doug calls this activity "Kass-TV." Brave, extraordinarily clever, and completely devoted to her people, she would happily follow Kassi anywhere.
Leo came later, a stray from Franklin County Shelter and the first dog Kassi and Doug chose together. When they adopted him, he was so skinny that they briefly wondered whether he might be a Belgian Malinois. Leo quickly disproved that theory by developing a profound love of food.
He is a perpetual optimist, usually found carrying a toy, charming strangers into saying hello, or launching himself into someone's personal space with great enthusiasm and very little awareness of his own size. Beneath the goofiness is an exceptionally gentle dog who loves people, loves other dogs, and believes that everyone should be friends.
Leo is also a dedicated collector of tennis balls. At dog parks, he considers any unattended tennis ball fair game and somehow always manages to leave with a larger collection than he arrived with. His devotion to tennis balls is so complete that Doug could steer him through life simply by holding one overhead.
Food ranks a close second. Leo will perform an astonishing variety of tricks in exchange for treats and occasionally supplements his diet by discreetly sampling whatever plants happen to be growing along the sidewalk. Azaleas are a particular favorite.
Kassi had seen photos of Anja years earlier. With her creamy white paws, pale cheeks, and a single chocolate-chip spot on her forehead, she was unmistakable. After Anja's owner died in a freak accident, she was auctioned under the wrong name and age and eventually ended up with someone who intended to breed her. With the help of a friend they had only just met, Kassi and Doug drove from Columbus to West Virginia and brought her home.
They soon discovered she had breast cancer. They brought her home anyway.
Anja was a warrior. Shortly after arriving, she underwent major surgery to remove cancerous masses. Most dogs would have taken that as a sign to rest. Anja disagreed.
The day after Christmas, she escaped and led half the town of St. Clairsville on a deer-chasing adventure before returning home on her own at four o'clock in the morning with ice packed between her toes after spending the night outdoors in snow drifts several feet deep on the coldest day of the year. She adored Doug, was endlessly gentle with people, and had a special talent for teaching rowdy puppies better manners. Cancer eventually claimed her, but not before she squeezed nearly two more years of adventures, mischief, and love into the time she had left.
A DNA test later confirmed what Kassi already knew: Anja was Lawine's mother. Suddenly, some things made a lot more sense. Lawine never cuddled anyone voluntarily, except Anja.
The dogs have been part of every move, every apartment, every house, every celebration, and every difficult season. They taught Kassi and Doug responsibility. They gave them a shared purpose. They made unfamiliar places feel like home.
Looking back, it is difficult to imagine their story without muddy paws, dog hair, emergency vet visits, road trips in the Yukon XL, and three extraordinary German Shepherds.
They grew up just a few hours apart but in very different worlds. Kassi was born in Moundsville, West Virginia, and grew up in nearby St. Clairsville, Ohio, about an hour west of Pittsburgh. Much of her childhood revolved around music. She loved singing, performing in show choir, and listening to just about everything. When she wasn't writing or performing music, she was on a softball field or outside climbing trees and adventuring.
Doug grew up in Bexley, Ohio, where he spent countless hours outside with friends. He played on his high school's state championship soccer team alongside his best friend, Chris Fahey. Music was important to him, too. He taught himself guitar, spent years playing, and eventually performed in a band called Talk of the Moon.
Kassi grew up with her younger brother, Bryce, who has managed to love and relentlessly terrorize her since he was old enough to speak, which happened remarkably and unfortunately early. Doug is the oldest of three and grew up with his younger sister, Liza, and younger brother, Nick, in a close-knit family.
Although their childhoods looked different, both grew up surrounded by families who encouraged curiosity, hard work, generosity, and caring deeply for the people around them. Those lessons, and the people who taught them, continue to shape the life they are building together.
Years after Doug first heard Kassi sing "Georgia," they moved to Atlanta together. The song that brought them together eventually lent its name to the state where they would build another chapter of their life.
Atlanta quickly became home. They fell in love with the city's extraordinary food, its seemingly endless canopy of trees, and the warmth of the people they met here. "The city in a forest" turned out to be more than a slogan. Even Kassi, who remains deeply suspicious of heat and humidity, has come to appreciate springtime azaleas, summer evenings spent wandering slowly beneath the trees, and the rhythm of life in the South.
Georgia is also where they put down roots. It is where Doug began residency, where Kassi began her career as a software engineer, and where they built a small community of friends. Over the years, Atlanta has become not just the place they live, but the place where they belong.
Kassi is notoriously difficult to surprise. Doug is famously honest and literal. Naturally, this meant he decided to plan an elaborate international deception.
It began with clues pointing to Vermont, one of Kassi's favorite places. Then came a series of increasingly convincing misdirects suggesting Portland, Oregon. Assisted by an elite team of co-conspirators consisting of Lynne, Karly, and Clara and some extra friendly Delta agents, Doug coordinated time off, planned an entire trip in secret, and somehow managed to guide Kassi through the airport wearing noise-canceling headphones and improvised "blinders" without revealing their destination.
Only after they were seated on the plane did he finally tell her the truth: they were headed to Munich.
After a day exploring Munich's Christmas markets, they boarded a train for Tegernsee. The journey passed through Holzkirchen, where Doug had first met his Bavarian relatives years earlier. For Kassi, the surrounding region was already deeply familiar from years spent living, studying, teaching, and returning to Bavaria. By the time they arrived at the lake, it felt less like a destination and more like a place where several threads of their story were coming together.
The next morning, they took a gondola to the top of the Wallberg overlooking Tegernsee. They had already rented sleds for the journey back down the mountain and were becoming increasingly concerned about whether that had been a good idea.
Standing at the summit, with the lake spread out below them, Doug decided it was best to propose before attempting what appeared to be a spectacularly dangerous sled ride down the mountainside.
Kassi said yes.
The sledding adventure ended more successfully than expected, followed by a celebratory Bavarian dinner, schnapps, and phone calls home. It remains one of their favorite adventures together.
The engagement story, in Doug's wordsIn June 2027, Kassi and Doug will marry on the shores of Wolfgangsee, surrounded by the people they love most. Wolfgangsee embodies so much of what they love about this part of the world: afternoons spent on the water, alpine cafés and bakeries, mountain railways, soaring peaks, and villages where life moves a little more slowly.
Although Wolfgangsee itself will be a new discovery for them, it feels like a natural home for the next chapter of a story shaped by years spent exploring Bavaria, Austria, and the Alps together. June 2027 will be their first opportunity to share that love of the region with the people who matter most.
Photo: C.Stadler/Bwag, CC BY-SA 4.0
Much of their relationship unfolded alongside graduate school, research, medicine, and career changes. During those years, Doug completed his Master's degree, graduated from medical school, and matched into Emory Radiology. Kassi earned her Master's degree, lived abroad in Berlin and later in Munich, completed her doctorate, published her research, and eventually made the transition from academia into software engineering.
All of the milestones that shaped their adult lives happened while they were together. There were exams and interviews, dissertations and applications, moves across states and across oceans, career changes, and countless long conversations about what came next. Looking back, what they remember most is not any single accomplishment, but having each other for all of it.
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