I moved to Scottsdale in June of 2017. I was 23 and didn’t know a soul out there. Aside from a brief year in nearby Indianapolis, I had lived within 15 minutes of my parents my entire life and was chasing adventure, change and my career.

As I hugged my dad goodbye in our Columbus, Ohio driveway, he whispered in my ear, “now don’t go meeting a boy out there.”

While I rolled my eyes then before hopping into the driver’s seat of my 2007 Toyota Corolla, I never forgot those words, especially when my life changed course just six months later.

As the saying goes, “a guy walks into a bar….”

The common mind pictures a girl, dressed to the nines, as the boy approaches her from the far side of the bar. The two talk the night away and fall in love. Well, for Brett and I, our story goes a little something like this:

Brett walks (maybe stumbles) into a Scottsdale bar and there I am, head to toe in Ohio State attire, with no regard for those around me, screaming at the TV, rooting on the only love in my life: Ohio State football.

I don’t notice Brett until he taps me on the shoulder – I will never understand what drew him to me that night because when I say I was screaming, I was SCREAMING at the game. I guess we can call it fate.

So there Brett is, tall, handsome, charming, everything I’d ever wanted. How do I respond?

“Unless you are going to buy me a drink, I’m not talking to you until this game is over.”

He comes back first with a bucket of Michelob Ultra, later with tequila. Ohio State wins the Big Ten Championship and I give in.

Brett and I talk, we dance, and he walks me three miles home. I leave him with my number at my door, not sure if I’d ever see him again.

Truth be told, I fell in love with him that night and was quick to text my two best friends saying so.

***We (Ohio State) did not make it in that year

Brett is easy to love. He is funny, confident, and full of life. He lights up every room he walks into and makes a stranger feel like a friend.

I was enthralled by all those qualities that night but it’s the journey life has taken us on over the last six years that has pushed us, deepened our connection, defined love in new ways and has made him undoubtably the person I want to spend the rest of my life with.

We played the usual cat-and-mouse game at first, neither side wanting to fully commit out of fear and the unknown. We were both uncertain about where our career might take us next.

And just like that, six months later, Brett’s career took him to Denver, a move we both knew he needed to take. I drove the 13 hours with him, helping him move and we spent the weekend exploring his new city before I boarded a flight back to Phoenix. I bawled my eyes out.

We survived 16 months of long distance. Hour long flights from Phoenix to Denver at first and later, five-hours from Fort Lauderdale. We were both so set on making our blossoming relationship work while also keeping in mind the goals we had set for ourselves. We charged through those first two years unafraid, supporting the decisions we made for ourselves as individuals while also making choices together. While we had no idea what we were doing, we knew we wanted to do it together.

By Fall of 2019, Brett made his 36-hour drive out to south Florida and we ended the long-distance and fully fell into our relationship – just in time for our hardest test.

March of 2020 came, and Brett lost his job due to Covid and remained out of work for nearly 15 months. Not only were we adjusting to life together, in a new city, we now had to deal with financial strain, unemployment and the stress of not knowing what would be next.

I look back on this time now with perspective. It was a blessing in disguise, and it made us stronger. I look at Brett now, a man happily employed in a new career where he is thriving and I see my partner, the person I want to go through all of life’s trials with and the man I want to celebrate all of life’s joys with.

Brett is my best friend, the one who I want to spend all my time with. We love all the same things and even the things we don’t, we pretend we do because we want to make one another happy.

My favorite thing about Brett is that he loves me for me and does so unconditionally. For a lot of my life, I never thought I’d find that. I feared I was too different. I was too much of a tomboy – my version of dressing up always includes a sports bra, I favor beer over wine, believe free time is best spent on the golf course and clear every Saturday in the fall to watch college football. I thought I’d have to change that if I wanted to find a partner. All the things I thought that made me different, Brett has made me see that those things just make me really damn cool.

We have grown together as people. I used to hate Sunday, letting the anxieties of the week ahead control me. Now, with Brett, we wake up and go to Church and then typically play a round of golf in the afternoon. It’s my favorite day of the week.

I think that sums up our relationship and who we have become together. Moments are better when we are together and nothing else matters because we have each other. I can’t wait to make that full commitment to him on our wedding day.

I’m so confident in our decision to get married because we have tested the commitment of marriage throughout our years together. Through all the bad times, our hearts always turned to each other and in the good, our hearts have soared. I fell in love with a 26-year-old boy at a bar in Scottsdale but in June of 2024, I get to marry the 33-year-old man who has stood by me through every up and down; the man who I'd give anything for and who would do the same for me and the person I love more than anything in this world.