Ian and I have been friends since 2018. After a period of platonic friendship, and just seeing each other snoop on our Instragram posts; Ian slid in the DMs.

On September 24th 2022, after a brief date at the Space Bar in Titusville, FL. Not knowing whether the long distance could work we just continued talking to one another at length. It wasn't until Hurricane Ian that we would truly know the sparks our relationship had. Ian and I took our Hurrication and took a trip to St. Augustine. It was there that we learned how much fun we had together and how well we traveled together. So we took the chance on long distance-- which at the time, the 166 miles apart from each other seemed daunting. But that would be only the beginning of our long distance journey apart from one another.

Long distance continued and we would only see each other on weekends; occasionally having longer stints of time together whenever Ian would have a holiday break (he's a teacher). We took a road trip to Asheville, North Carolina during Thanksgiving Break, where we tried every brewery in sight, attended a Saturday market hosted by a commune, and took a spontaneous 5-hour drive to West Virginia. The relationship functioned as a long-distance arrangement where we constantly kept in touch and only saw each other every few weeks. Each time the relationship would grow and become closer, it would experience more challenges due to busy Air Force work trips and a deployment (I'm in the Air Force).

During Spring Break, Ian came to Brevard for the whole week and interviewed for jobs to finally break the distance and move over to this side of the state from St. Petersburg. Once he was offered a job at a new school, we went and toured apartments that day. We found an apartment we liked, applied, got approved and iniated the beginning of the end of long distance. Just a few weeks after locking in our future, I left for a deployement to the other side of the world, where I would be gone for over 3 months in. time-zone 7 hours apart from Ian. This deployment would test the strength of our relationship to the limit.

Running into Ian's arms after some of the worst days of my life (in the Desert), felt amazing. I was reunited with my Best Friend and who was now also my roommate. Soon enough our apartment was beginning to feel like home. A few weeks after I returned, Ian and I went on a trip to Michigan to see some of my family and to just relax and recharge. Little did I know, Ian had something else planned. On one of our last days in Michigan we took a road trip to Grand Rapids to visit the Gerald Ford Library, then to Lake Michigan. On Lake Michigan at Sunset on 25 July 2023, Ian proposed. He proposed on the Lake due to his family history on Fishing on the Lake (on the Wisconsin side) and my family being from Michigan. It was the perfect proposal on such a perfect day!

Fast forward until today and here we are planning our wedding. I can't believe that this is happening. I hope you enjoyed our story!