After ten years of friendship, eight years together, and a year of marriage, Amanda and George are so excited to finally celebrate their love story. As they work hard to plan a party for their loved ones that will be one to remember, they are enjoying this season of life with their one-year-old son, Noah and four-year-old fur baby, Turbo.
Amanda and George first met on January 6, 2014. It was the end of Amanda’s first day of her new job at CityTwist, where George had worked for the past four years. Their first interaction was a memorable one, as George had to cut it short because he was on his way down to the dumpster to look for his camera equipment that the company janitor had mistakenly thrown away. In their roles as Compliance Manager and Creative Director, the two interacted more and more over time, mostly due to the fact that George felt Amanda was always telling him what he couldn’t do – for legal reasons. Over time, the interactions turned into long conversations about intellectual property law, strategies, and eventually more personal topics like their backgrounds, experiences and travel stories. Despite both having grown up in Boca and been a part of many of the same circles, they were surprised that their paths had never crossed in the past. Nevertheless, Amanda and George quickly discovered they had a lot in common and a lot to talk about.
Eventually, the conversations made their way from their respective offices to the bar, where the pair, then both in their mid-twenties, discovered something else they had in common – they liked (read: loved) to party. Fueled by late nights, fireball shots, beer pong and karaoke, a friendship had blossomed and despite both of them continuing to date other people, Amanda and George soon became inseparable. A pattern of post-work shenanigans had ensued that, in retrospect, was exhausting and in no way sustainable, but leaning on their youth and determination, neither of them ever missed a single day of work, although they were definitely late a few times. Their ability to switch gears and give one hundred percent in their professional roles set a foundation for them as a team that continues to drive their relationship and their lifestyle even today.
Things started to get more serious when, one morning, after a recent skating trip to Dubai, George came into Amanda’s office to announce that he was going to buy a jet ski. Amanda was equal parts envious and excited to hear this, her fondest childhood memories having been made riding jet skis in Florida and New Jersey with her aunt and uncle and having been plotting for years how to bring the thrill back into her life. With the guidance of another CityTwist colleague, George invited Amanda for a ride in the Keys that quickly became an every-other-weekend thing. They both truly loved the experience of riding and their world gradually started to center around how they could maximize their time on the water.
One day in April of 2016, while Amanda was at home, she just happened to see a P1AquaX broadcast come on and was shocked to learn that people race jet skis. After some quick research, she discovered that the organization was racing in Daytona Beach the following weekend and it didn’t take long to convince George that they should go check it out. So off they went for a fun weekend, with George’s Dad and their friend Matt in tow, and they got to meet some of the racers who encouraged them to take the leap and get involved in the sport. Less than a month later, the two lined up at the start of their first race in Kissimmee, ready to dive head into an adventure that would become another defining piece of their story together.
Within months they were gaining the attention of sponsors and before they knew it they were traveling all over Florida and the rest of the country to compete. Over the course of four seasons they collected trophies, sustained injuries and created lifelong friendships. They had just returned back from their second Mark Hahn 300 in Lake Havasu City, Arizona when the world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and all upcoming races were postponed indefinitely.
Meanwhile, Amanda and George’s lives were getting busier than ever career-wise. Having both left CityTwist several years earlier to pursue different opportunities, they had begun working together again in January 2019. This reunion was the result of George’s and his business partner’s marketing agency entering into an acqui-hire deal with Amanda’s then-employer, and for a little more than a year, they made the commute to Miami together every single day. During this time they bought their first home in Boca Raton, adopted an adorable puppy, and started making semi-frequent trips to the UK. In March 2020, when everything stopped, they found themselves in the fortunate position of being employed in a pandemic-proof industry where they could work from home, and were both eventually assigned to help lead the organization’s video-game division towards its IPO which successfully completed in January 2021.
As the world shifted into the post-pandemic era and live interactions resumed, Amanda and George ceased the opportunity to attend face-to-face meetings, and by the end of 2021, they were traveling to races almost every weekend. Just when it seemed that their lives could not possibly get any busier or any more exciting than they were, they took a much needed trip to Hawaii with their friends, only to come back and learn that they were unexpectedly pregnant. They were delighted and foolishly thought that they had many months to plan for the arrival of a baby, but much to their surprise Amanda gave birth one week later to a beautiful, healthy baby boy who instantly became the center of their whole world.
Although they had discussed getting married one day and had casually selected April 20th as their ideal wedding date, no formal plans had been made and they weren’t even engaged. But three weeks later, eager to begin their journey into parenthood as a family, on July 22, 2022 they got married at a park near their house and officially became The Holmquists. They never gave up on their desire to throw a big party to celebrate their love and their union, and are so excited to finally be planning their wedding.
They have celebrated together – promotions, wins, major life achievements, and most importantly, the birth of their son. They have mourned together – the loss of Amanda’s Uncle and Godfather in 2018, George’s grandmother in January 2019 and Amanda’s father in April 2019. They have pulled all nighters – as professionals with deadlines, as makeshift mechanics the night before a race, and as exhausted new parents. From the very beginning, they have found a way to work together to achieve something bigger than the sum of each other, and they are delighted to stop and take the time to celebrate who they are as a couple today.
