Joshua Jay deLacy
&
Joanna Mary Bayliss
June 20, 2020
Dear friends and family,
One of our greatest joys while planning our wedding was imagining celebrating this day with the people we love most dearly. But to keep those we love safe, we have decided to downsize our wedding. Instead of a large gathering, we’ll mark this new stage in our lives with a small ceremony in North Carolina, attended only by our immediate families. We’ll get married on an Appalachian mountaintop, on property that has belonged to Joanna’s family for generations.
We hope to gather with you before long at receptions on the West and East Coasts. We will post more updates on this website, and you can also email us at joshdelacy@gmail.com or joanna.m.bayliss@gmail.com
We love you all, and we hope you are well.
Josh and Joanna
Our story
Josh and Joanna did not meet in college. Although they both graduated from Calvin College in 2013, and although Joanna’s art and Josh’s writing appeared in back-to-back pages of Calvin’s arts and literary journal, and although they shared fifty-some mutual friends (by Facebook’s count), the two never met. Or it’s more likely they did meet, but neither was very memorable to the other.
Years later, Josh had returned to Washington State and Joanna had ended up in Florida, when a mutual friend from Calvin saw real potential—twelve state borders be damned. She gently prodded Joanna for months to make a move. On September 1, 2017, Joanna wrote “So my friend Paula told me I would like you. I know right? Told me. But I was intrigued and now here we are at the end of this cold open. What are you reading now?”
Josh was camping with his family at the time, and not particularly inclined to get involved with a stranger who lived 3,000 miles away, but he offered up the encounter to entertain his family. “Florida Girl” thus gained momentum in a grassroots movement of family curiosity and questioning, and Josh wrote back.
Within weeks, Josh and “Florida Girl” were exchanging 1,000-word messages, and within months, they were spending hours in video calls. Joanna flew out to Seattle in January, and apparently confronted Josh with a kiss before anyone had said “hello,” although she remembers it as much more natural and mutually initiated.
Josh and Joanna have become very familiar with airports and credit card miles. They’ve taken full advantage of their flexible jobs to visit each other each month, and although they’ve learned to tolerate nine-hour, middle-seat red-eye flights, they’re looking forward to living and flying together so Josh can volunteer to take the middle seat.
Wedding party
Lauren Bayliss
Joanna’s oldest sister, Lauren, works as an assistant professor of public relations at Georgia Southern University. Lauren’s house in Savannah has a “little sister” suite in the attic (also known as “the garret”). During Savannah sister sleepovers, she and Joanna enjoy watching telenovelas, discussing home improvement projects, and arranging cheese boards. Lauren’s dogs, Peggy and Lady, are terrified of how much Joanna loves them.
Ben deLacy
Josh’s younger brother, Ben deLacy is finishing a double-major in finance and information systems at the University of Washington. He and Josh have skied, hiked, and rock climbed throughout the Pacific Northwest. Last summer, they completed a years-long goal of summiting all of Washington’s five volcanoes.
Connie Bayliss
Joanna’s older-but-not-oldest sister, Connie teaches humanities at The Habersham School in Savannah, Georgia. Connie always keeps a camp stove in her trunk (just in case), and can deliver an impromptu 45-minute lecture on any topic related to medieval history, complete with improvised visuals and reflection questions.
Will Montei
Although Will Montei and Josh both graduated Calvin College with writing majors, they knew each other only as acquaintances until Will took a half-serious invitation very seriously and moved to Seattle to rent a house with Josh and Ben. They have shared post-calvin life ever since. Will now works as a high school English teacher in Madison, Wisconsin.
Registry
The best gift is your presence, but if you’d like to contribute further to our new life together, we’ve created a registry. As we have several cross-country moves planned in the near future and would like to fit all our possessions in a single moving van, we’d prefer contributions toward our honeymoon instead of physical gifts.
We’ve made a list of experiences and activities you can register for to make our dream vacation through Italy a reality. We would be thrilled to receive a dinner overlooking the Mediterranean, admission to an art museum, or a night in an alpine hut.
If you prefer not to contribute to the honeymoon, we have a list of the items we would most appreciate in our new life as a married couple.
