All great stories start with a chance encounter, a moment that seems too perfect to be anything other than fate. So, as romantics, we call the story of Blake and Bridget a love story.

It was a Thursday in early April 2013, and Bridget headed out to a local Tallahassee favorite, Pot's, with some friends for a night of dancing and cheer. She didn't always like to go out in the evenings, especially after working and studying hard all week when she just wanted to cuddle in bed, but her roommate made a valid point: "It's Thursday Purgatory where the bartenders serve free drinks." And so, Bridget got dressed, banded, and set out to enjoy spending time with her friends.

Earlier that day and a couple miles away, Blake was wrapping up class at the college when a classmate approached him about coming out that evening. After an entire semester of skipping out on these invites, Blake finally agreed to go out. Plus, his classmate made a good point: "It's Thursday Purgatory where the bartenders serve free drinks." And so Blake went home, got dressed, and headed over to Pot's.

Coincidentally, the people that begged Blake and Bridget to come out both knew each other, and they all ended up in the same area of the bar.

Bridget noticed Blake first. She noticed he had blonde hair, tanned skin, and most importantly, that he appeared to be wearing a bathing suit to the bar. She approached him with the question, "Are you wearing a bathing suit?" To which he replied, "Yes, I am," and they spent the rest of the evening talking to each other, as if they were the only two in the bar. They found out they have similar birthdays (January 27th and January 28th), and that Bridget is older by 364 days. They discovered where each other was from, and Bridget was familiar with Ft. Pierce/Port St. Lucie because, "it's one of the rest stops on the turnpike." They found out they both liked football, soccer, each had one sibling, and they both ended up there by chance that night. They rode the Night Nole and kept talking all night.

In fact, they never really stopped talking. A couple weeks later they went on their first date to get tacos and go bowling, and they kept talking. Summer came and Blake asked Bridget to be his girlfriend, and so they spent the summer in Tallahassee as boyfriend and girlfriend. It should be mentioned here that during the summer Bridget was helping Blake with laundry and came across his attire from the night they met. His "bathing suit" was actually just a pair of shorts. When confronted with this information, Blake said, "Well, you can wear it in the water." Fall came with a long distance relationship, but Bridget came up for most football games, and she returned to Tallahassee in the Spring.

They transferred from Tallahassee Community College to Florida State University, graduated in 2016, and spent two years on the West Coast of Florida in Fort Myers before Bridget decided to move to Greensboro, North Carolina for a Masters program. And while it wasn't easy at all, their love endured the distance and they even got to reunite earlier thanks to COVID.

In 2020 they bought a house together in Port St. Lucie, FL, and reside there with their Boston Terrier cat-dog mixture. In July of 2021 they planned a trip out to the Grand Canyon. They had tacos on the beach in L.A., went golfing in Palm Springs, visited Joshua Tree and stayed under the stars in an Old Pioneer Town before they made their way to the Grand Canyon.

Their first night at the park they had dinner and when Blake offered to get a bottle of wine Bridget shot him down saying, "We have to get up early for our hike tomorrow." They went for a brief walk to watch the sunset, but in the crowd of people whirling around them they couldn't get a good view. The next morning, on July 8th, they rose before the sun and hiked down into the canyon. Bridget has a fear of heights, and the hike down involved a lot of tears. They arrived at the aptly named Ooh-Aah Look Out Point and watched the sunrise peak above the canyons before heading back out of the canyon.

Around 6 o'clock Blake asked Bridget if she wanted to go watch the sunset somewhere on the Trail of Time. Every opening that Bridget would offer they go sit at to watch the sunset Blake turned down. It was either too small or too crowded or not right. "Let's just keep going," he said. Finally, they found a spot. Blake wanted to dangle his feet over the edge, but flashbacks to that morning's hike were running through Bridget's head. He finally assured her with logic stating, "The next ledge is literally five feet below us." And so, she too dangled her legs over the edge of the Grand Canyon.

When they got up to leave, Bridget was having difficulties buckling her backpack but finally got it done. She turned around to see Blake down on one knee, and immediately started to cry in a good way and knelt down next to him. The two stood, kissed, and Blake laughed and asked, "So, is that a yes?" To which Bridget responded, "Well, you never actually asked me anything." And Blake asked Bridget a very important question that she said yes to.

The Mutiny Hotel by Provident Hotels & Resorts