Our story began on a yellow school bus in the city of Chicago in summer 2012. It was a hot orientation day and Renee was an orientation leader while Raman was a new student at the Illinois Institute of Technology. While on the bus, Raman was happy to hear a Caribbean accent and began asking Renee a million questions (he remembers only asking three questions). Like any other orientation leader who's been asked a million questions for the last week, Renee was annoyed. Nonetheless she recalls answering all the questions effortlessly and he recalls her succinct answers as “get away from me”.
Fast forward into the typical University life, and while Renee served as Events Director of the Caribbean Visionaries, Raman was always willing to represent the island of Antigua at all the activities. From those interactions, it’s how we started to grow close. We discussed passionate subject matters such as Pokemon and Game of Thrones. It is important to note that Raman wasn't the one who was obsessed with Pokemon and GOT however as a good friend he humoured Renee’s obsession. As time got close to Renee's graduation the two slowly started to realize that there may be something more, however it was never really considered until after Renee left for Houston in 2015. It was only then they decided to make it official and started a long distance relationship.
Since then, we’ve focused on building a relationship and life together. In as early as 2016, Raman found his way in a Thomas family picture that Renee’s brother (Jeremy) invited him to join even though he was not originally expected to be in it (you can tell from the colour of his shirt). However, Jeremy may have seen something long before everyone else.
Renee and Raman are both passionate about family and have celebrated Christmas and New Years between Grenada and Antigua as well as one time in India over the last few years.
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Together, we’re a team! We’ve started a business called KariBites, which provides a food delivery service for Caribbean islands. Through our entrepreneurial ventures, we’ve also had fun experiences such as visiting Peru to participate in a regional entrepreneurship competition. And guess what! We won the competition in our category!
Now, we're ready to take the next big step in our life journey by tying the knot. This is just the beginning of another phase and we’re excited to celebrate with our family and friends. We know there’s a lot to learn and it won’t always be a bed of roses, but we’re committed to this union and each other. We look forward to this next step and creating new memories with all of you.
