William Evans & Melissa Hurd

After graduating from college in 2010 Pennsylvania native Melissa Hurd decided it was time for a change of scenery. Following her parents’ suggestion, she let fate lead the way, closed her eyes, and pointed to a map, aiming for anywhere in the Southeast. Her finger landed on Charleston and she arrived in Holy City just two days later. After moving in, Melissa visited her new apartment’s pool, but found the gate locked. She looked around and noticed that then-stranger William had made it in. In his “sweet Southern drawl,” Melissa says, William told her he had jumped the fence, and she followed suit. From there, Melissa, a self-described “adventure-seeking, country-at-heart teacher from the North” and William, whom she describes as “a rule-breaking, Mount Dew-drinking engineer from Summerville,” became fast friends. The friends became roommates, who then became a couple. When William moved to Beaufort for a job promotion, Melissa visited, she thought, for her birthday celebration. After a morning on the beach, a private boat ride, and dinner at a dockside restaurant, William took Melissa to the historic Old Sheldon Church Ruins, dropped to one knee, and proposed. “I jumped for joy!” Melissa says. “We couldn’t be happier.” The couple, who live in Charleston, will wed in June 2013.