Hallie King & Frank D’Alonzo

Photos by Jennie Tewell

Engagement Date

May 21, 2019

Wedding Date

May 16, 2020

Ceremony + Reception Location

The Locale | Mobile, AL

How They Met

Frank and I were “high school sweethearts” so to speak, but not in the expected way where we knew each other our whole lives and loved each other forever and ever. I went to St. Paul’s from Pre-K to 12th grade, and he moved to Mobile from New Jersey at the end of our freshman year of high school. We didn’t get together until our senior year, after we found out that we were both committed to attend Samford University (go Bulldogs!) – up to that point I was actually closer friends with his brother, Matthew (my mom once told me that she thought I would marry him!). But we had a lot of mutual friends, and they spent months beforehand joking that we were a couple even though we were barely even close friends at that point. On September 21, 2013, he changed that, and we’ve happily hopped from Mobile to Birmingham and back ever since then!

- Sponsors -

How He Proposed

We went to South Bend, Indiana, at the end of May to attend Frank’s brother Matthew’s graduation from the University of Notre Dame. Instead of buying him a graduation gift, we decided we wanted to book a hotel for the three of us and visit Chicago after the weekend ended. I had never been and, hello, golden opportunity to see “Hamilton!” We spent a few days in the city, but it was rainy and cold and crowded everywhere we went. We had some picture perfect moments – visiting The Bean, riding on a tour boat near sunset, standing over the water at Navy Pier, strolling through Shedd Aquarium and the Art Institute, touring Hamilton: The Exhibition, dining in a handful of fantastic restaurants – but Frank knows me well. All of those places were busy and hurried and gave me slight anxiety. Instead, when we got back to our hotel on our last night, he stopped me in the hallway and pulled a ring out of nowhere, just the two of us. I had no idea! It wasn’t a staged, plan a photo-op and screech to the masses moment; it was just us, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, and I couldn’t have asked for anything more fitting for me.

Want to share your engagement with us? Click here to submit your story.

Get the best of Mobile delivered to your inbox

Be the first to know about local events, home tours, restaurant reviews and more!