Her version of the story:

As much as I (Ariel) insisted early on that we met at a bar (which had everyone suspicious with questions like, "When did you go to a bar without any of your friends as witnesses?"), the truth eventually came out that we met on Hinge. Thanks to one of my life-long best friends and roommate at the time Rachel, I agreed to a 2nd date three days later despite being weirded out by the fact that Kevin was a "rando" from a dating app, and it was off to the races from there.

Our relationship started what felt like "long distance" with him living 30-minutes away in Brighton and me in Back Bay. However, thanks to an incident where he missed the deadline to re-sign his lease, he ended up moving into the apartment building next door to Rachel and me. Needless to say, I was pretty happy about his lack of organization in that instance. :)

Soon after, we ended up living in a small 2-bedroom 1-bathroom apartment together with Rachel and Rose. While cramped doesn't begin to describe the situation, it was a period we wouldn't give up for anything - full of laughs, tears, stories, and nonsense.

We eventually all went our separate ways - Rachel to DC for her residency, Rose to Chicago for business school - and Kevin and I bought our first apartment. We spent the better part of a year making it our dream spot, and he now insists it's his favorite place in the world. It's mine too!

It's a good thing we were able to make it comfortable before COVID, because we've gotten very well acquainted with every nook and cranny over the last year. Given I traveled at least 3 days per week for work prior to the pandemic, Kevin had to get used to having me around. You'll have to ask him how he feels about that when you see him. :)

But, in all seriousness, while it has been a tough year, we feel fortunate for the quality time we've had together. We've enjoyed the stolen mid-day hugs, slow mornings that start with Scrabble and pancakes before work, virtual workout classes in our living room with lit candles and dimmed lights to replicate a Soul Cycle-esque vibe, weekend adventures around New England, nightly dinners together, and long walks around Boston. We hope to hold onto the good parts when life eventually goes back to "normal."

After we had COVID in December (better described as when I had COVID and Kevin had the sniffles), we decided to take a 5-week west coast trip from late January through the end of February. I was taking time off before starting a new job, so Kevin worked east coast hours while I explored and read, and we vacationed together in the evenings. It was the trip of a lifetime.

During it, we found out that we'd be temporarily moving to San Francisco while I onboarded for my new role at True Ventures. Given Kevin had always wanted to experience living on the west coast and I loved SF when I lived there in 2015, we were elated. We're here now, and it has been an exciting new chapter of our lives together. And when we get back, we'll roll right into the wedding.

We are psyched to be getting married. While "opposites attract" certainly applies to us, we constantly remind one another how blessed we are to have found each other, to be so in love, to share such deep trust and respect, and to have such a blast together. I can't imagine anyone with whom I'd rather adventure through life!

One of my favorite things about Kevin is how much he loves our friends and family. Nothing makes him happier than talking to and spending time with them. COVID has been tough on us in that regard - we miss the people in our lives. But at the same time, we've enjoyed the opportunities it has given us to have our friends, Jeffrey and Rose, move in with us, go on daily walks (many times with wine) with our friend Liz who lives down the street, and spend weeks visiting our families. We're excited to be able to see everyone again after a long year apart.

His version of the story:

November 12th, 2017 - I (Kevin) was excited and nervous to meet Ariel after messaging on the dating app Hinge. I had a cute Sunday afternoon date planned when I got the text that I was being canceled on last minute…

Can't remember what I said, but I must've made her feel bad enough for me to reschedule for the next night - my choice as to where. Living outside of the city and not knowing Boston very well at all, I chose Jacob Wirth's. Solely because I had been given a framed poster that I had hanging up in my apartment, and not because I knew anything about it.

I showed up early to realize it was an old German bar decked out in Christmas décor (on Nov 13th, well before Thanksgiving) with a back room filled with senior citizens playing Bingo…. solid pick, Kev. Despite the environment, when Ariel walked in, I was instantly taken by her smile and infectious energy and we hit it off so easily. I really liked who I was when I was with her.

Not too many dates later (dinners out, comedy, and game nights being our favorites) and we were in love. We quickly got to know each other's friends and family over the first year… although Ariel had a knack for not prepping me when I was about to meet family early on. A heads up that we're about to walk into a breakfast that your dad's at would be nice! As we gradually became more ingrained in each other's lives, it validated how much we liked each other as I loved spending time with the people closest to her and vice versa.

We moved into our current apartment in May 2019 and had a blast making it our own - she led the charge with the renovations, but I like to think I contributed some key functional elements when things got too design-focused :) It was (mostly) a fun project that taught us how to work together, communicate, and roll with the punches when things don’t go as planned. The result is a home we really love: a place to share our life together that is always open to our family and friends.

There are so many memories there over the last 2 years, but my favorite is February 15th, 2020. We, as usual, had friends (Rose, Jeffrey, and Riley) staying with us that weekend and had special lunch plans at Stir in the South End of Boston. Stir is a demo kitchen in an intimate 10 seat environment.

Ariel was frantically working on a time-sensitive work project that morning and mentioned to us that she might have to blow up our plans for the day. I (equally frantically) was separately texting her coworkers/our friends, Liz and Sean, filling them in on the secret and asking if they could pitch in or tell her not to work!

They came to the rescue, and Ariel finished just in time to come to Stir. She was so preoccupied that when we walked in her jaw dropped when she saw the rest of the class was rounded out by her dad and Erica, her mom and Robert, and my parents - all flown into town for the surprise. I immediately dropped to one knee, nervously professed my love, and asked her to marry me. A "Yes" and many happy tears later, we celebrated the day with our families and then that night had a party with our Boston friends at our apartment. I feel so grateful to have been able to share that day with everyone before COVID started spreading through the US a couple weeks later.

This past year has been another amazing chapter to our story as we got to slow down, spend more time with each other, and enjoy parts of life that we likely used to take for granted. The light at the end of the tunnel is a big celebration with all of our favorite people - we are beyond excited for October!