Our Story started back in October of 2022, where Derek and Alanna found each other in the most natural and organic way as most people do, swiping right on Tinder.

Rumor has it Derek only opened the app to clear a notification from his phone when he saw a perfectly cultivated message from Alanna, "Hey There :)"

From that night on they texted every night slowly getting to know each other, "whats your favorite food?", "do you watch the office?", "you aren't a serial killer?", until November when they finally set up a date to meet. After that night in November conversations were daily, phone calls became more persistent and they kept making plans to see each other on weekends since distance kept them living about an hour apart.

In January of 2023 Derek finally made it official and asked Alanna to be his girlfriend. Through that time the couple would only see each other still on weekends, alternating the drive every other week, holidays or long weekends. Nightly video chats became a ritual. Friends and family were introduced, met with a consensus of "you two fit perfectly together". The two had a system down so any moment that could be spent together, was.

After time, deciding distance could no longer keep the two apart, in October of 2024 Derek made the decision to leave the Sauk Center area and move in with and put up with Alanna and Arya (iykyk) in Underwood. Since then the couple enjoys being home-bodies together, being one another's sous-chef, random game nights, and binge-watching documentaries and other war movies Derek can make Alanna sit through.

December 12th, 2025 Derek got down on a knee and popped the question - with his script thrown out of the window with Alanna's stammers and questions of "is this real life?" The yeses were said and they lived happily ever after.