Emma's version:

After over a year without a single date, I decided it was time to "get back out there." So, in April of 2023, I made a profile on a dating site called Hinge. I uploaded photos and wrote little blurbs about myself, my hobbies, my job, etc. I honestly did not expect much to come of it, except to feel like a "normal" 25 year old.

I matched with a really cute, really TALL guy named Jake, who lived in Kalamazoo. After messaging and texting back and forth for a few weeks, I really wanted to meet him and see if he was as good as what his profile made him seem. I told my mom I was driving to Marshall, Michigan to meet a guy I met online. You can imagine her reaction! She said she was going to come with me and just sit at a different table. I talked her down and on April 16, 2023, I drove an hour to the Dark Horse Brewery to meet Jake for the first time. He was already inside when I arrived, wearing jeans and a quarter zip, and I think I fell in love right there in the corner of the brewery. Our date went so well that we went on a walk in a park not too far away, and then we went to a coffee shop to warm up after the walk. I think we spent 4 hours together that day. I deleted the app a few days later because I knew I had found my person. I wasn't even scared off when he told me he lived with his parents still!

We spent 14 months dating across the distance, seeing each other almost every single weekend. In March of 2024, Jake bought a house in Kalamazoo, and I moved in in June. After a failed attempt to enjoy a romantic Alaskan cruise in late July, Jake had a ring that was "burning a hole in his pocket." He asked me to marry him on August 3, 2024 at Glendarin Hills Golf Course in Angola, on the tee box of the 6th hole. He was so nervous that he forgot to kneel, but I wouldn't change that moment for the world.

Jake's version:

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