Our story starts back in the fall of 2019, when we were both working for Principal Financial Group.

Though in different departments, we happened to be within the same office. Colin’s desk was conveniently positioned near the break room, so Beth often found herself stopping in for a snack, probably more than the average person who didn’t have a crush on the cute IT guy would... Despite this, our interactions never went further than quick glances at each other while passing by.

This was how it went up until a random Saturday night when we both happened to be in the same crowded bar, and saw each other from across the room. Our eyes locked and Colin made the first move - he waved. Beth, still thinking that there was no way this guy would even recognize her, chose to ignore his hand spasm, and walked right by him.

Feeling shut down, Colin gave up hope on talking to Beth. Weeks went by and our small office interactions seemed to dwindle, without hope of anything coming to fruition… That is, at least until early 2020.

Beth’s office was moving to a new space, and it just so happened that Colin’s IT team was staffed to assist with the technology set up at the new office.

On moving day, Beth was struggling with the technology in her office set up. There were just so many cords….so she shoved them in a random drawer and hoped for the best. What else was a girl supposed to do?

After realizing that her strategy of hiding the problem probably wasn’t the best solution, she decided to take matters into her own hands. Or at least, into IT’s hands.

While there were several IT people around that day, Beth would strategically wait to ask for help until she knew Colin could help her. One interaction involved a slight scanner issue, in which Beth adamantly told Colin that yes, her scanner was completely broken, but that no, she didn’t know the power cord wasn't plugged in (ahem, remember when she said there were just SO many cords?).

Colin quickly became the hero for finding the power cord and magically fixing the “broken” scanner, and Beth was totally smitten with him. After that day, she decided she needed to make the first move so, naturally, she found him on Instagram and gave him a follow.

Thankfully Colin was also feeling the spark, so when his screen lit up with the notification, “Beth_ocon has requested to follow you”, he sh*t himself.

Just kidding ;)

But, he did immediately follow her back to then ask for her phone number.

Fast forward a week, and we are going on our first date! It went amazing, as you would guess. We were happily in our own little bubble when the entire world shut down, for what everyone thought would be only two weeks.

Well, those two weeks turned into months, and the months somehow turned into a year, and all during this time while chaos reigned around the world, we fell in love.

COVID brought us a ton of quality time with socially distanced dates that involved long walks outside, even longer bike rides, and lots, and lots of board games.

Fast forward 4 years and we have been inseparable. We now own a home in Urbandale, and together we have our most loved fur baby, Charlie.

We wouldn’t have our love story any other way, and are so happy to be able to finally celebrate it with all of our friends and family!