Since Emily was starting at a new school in a new area, she promised herself she wouldn’t date anyone until she had at least one semester under her belt. Near the end of the semester, one of Emily’s swim teammates decided to make her an online dating profile on Bumble to help her meet people in this new environment. She was extremely skeptical but figured she had nothing to lose. Little did she know this would be the best decision ever!


While this was going on, I was living about 30 minutes outside of the city and ironically contemplating deleting Bumble because I was adamant that online dating wasn’t for me. Before deleting the app, something told me to give the app one last glance over. So, after swiping through some profiles, I figured it best to keep the app until the end of the week to see if any of my swipes turned into a match. Sure enough, the next day Emily and I matched!


From the very first message, our conversations flowed amazingly! It was clear early on that we shared the same views and values which was/is extremely important to both of us. After about two weeks of talking on the app, we decided to finally meet up and go on a first date. I decided on a classic “dinner and movie” first date. We ate at Texas Roadhouse and went to see Top Gun Maverick (Emily’s request, which of course I was all for). The date went amazing! On our separate drives home we both immediately called our best friends to share about how it went (Emily called her bridesmaid, Abby and I called my best man, Calvin).


A couple of days later I had plans to go see Brad Paisley in concert with some friends. When I found out I was going to be the only one without someone at the concert, my friend pressured me to ask the girl I wouldn’t stop talking about from the other day. I was nervous to ask, but I finally did (not knowing that Emily’s a huge fan of concerts and country music) and sure enough she said yes. After these first two dates, summer was in full swing, which allowed us to go on a ton of dates back-to-back-to-back.

Fast forward to 2023. Emily and I had been talking about our future together and about the high probability of one day getting married. In June we went ring shopping so she could try on some different styles to see what she liked. About a month later, while she was out of town, I went back to the store and decided on the ring she would end up with.

Planning the proposal and putting it into motion was challenging. I am not the best with secrets and Emily isn’t really the best at letting something remain a secret, so naturally… the plan had to evolve several times to try and keep Emily on her toes. I finally settled on October 14th, which is a couple of days after my birthday. Despite several hiccups along the way, which included my original photographer canceling on me less than two weeks before the proposal, the day finally arrived, and everything went off smoothly. I was able to work in a few little surprises within the day to keep Emily guessing, even though she knew more than she should have. I proposed at Point State Park in downtown Pittsburgh along the three rivers, where Emily and I have had numerous picnics and walks.

Now we are here, preparing for this big celebration to commemorate our love for each other and embarking on a journey that only God knows where it will lead. Thank you for supporting us through our lives and guiding us to where we are now. Emily and I wouldn’t be where we are or who we are without your love and support.

With love, -Nathan