Dylan and I met at Cafe Astoria in the fall of 2022, but before then, we met on a dating app called “Hinge”. We always joked that we would never admit we met on a dating app, but Dylan always said how proud he was about that, saying we were “the greatest Hinge success story”. So here I am, in all my glory, fully and completely admitting that YES, we did meet on a dating site.

We met at Cafe Astoria at table 4, where I sat in the window as I watched Dylan cross the street to the Cafe. I got there before him and pretended I didn’t see him crossing the street, but I knew in that moment that he would be something special (the understatement of the century, clearly).

We obviously hit it off, and within hours of our first date Dylan asked me to go bar hopping for his friends birthday, Josh (you may recognize this name in our bridal party as one of Dylan’s groomsmen).

As if Dylan wasn’t the total package already, his friends and family totally sealed the deal. From that day forward we did most everything together. Farmers market dates, game nights, brewery’s, hanging out with our many animals, playing with Quinn, and more. My life has been infinitely better with Dylan in it.

And with that, the rest was history :)

One September afternoon, we agreed to meet at Cafe Astoria. She arrived earlier than I did and was already seated. As I approached the building I could see her fiery red hair through the window as she wasn’t looking my way.

As I entered the cafe we locked eyes and her face lit up as I know mine did as well. I went in to greet her and she instantly embraced me. She’s always been a hugs over handshakes person. 

We spent about 45 minutes in that cafe but each minute would determine a lifetime. We had small talk that lead to laughter which lead to making jokes about marrying each other. Little did we know we would be getting engaged 1 1/2 years later in the same spot. 

It was a first date we didn’t want to leave but needed to, but we would seal it with our first kiss.