We met on a student music video film set at Huntington University, where we played best friends and I, who played the female friend, was in love with him.

Being on a film set, we got some down time as the crew set up for each scene, which meant there was a lot of time for conversations to get to know each other.

At that time, neither of us even imagined we would be setting up our wedding website. I believe we actually said to each other at one point that "we were done dating for a while, especially at Huntington." It wasn't until December of that year at a music/theater department Christmas party we reconnected and started talking.

While we were both going through tough times, we found comfort in each other's friendships.

But thanks to some of our friends, (thanks Karissa, Parker, Carson and Sommer) scheming together to "coincidentally" getting us to hang out with each other, we agreed to go on a date and share some of our favorite movies with each other.

It's funny because we went out twice, but the whole time we were both uncertain about how the other felt about us. Carson was getting an earful about how much I liked Zach, and Sommer was hearing all about how Zach liked me. Sommer and Carson were probably getting tired of hearing all about it and finally told us to just pluck up the courage already.

So at 2 in the morning on Feburary 15th/16th (we still don't fully know our exact date) Zach asked if he could hold my hand and then asked me to be his girlfriend.

Unfortunately, a month later, COVID hit, and I was sent to Fort Wayne, while he was sent home to Chicago. We were caught off guard at trying to handle this new relationship now long-distance, but for some reason, I wasn't worried at all. As the rom-coms say, I was quickly falling hopelessly head over heels in love with Zach. He took me home to meet his family at their house in Ludington, Michigan. I don't remember exactly what happened, but I think he started the whole "where is this going" talk, and I just looked at him and blurted out "I'm falling in love with you." I was terrified because I said it after just one month and thought I had scared him. But he got a huge grin on his face and said he was falling in love with me too.

I think I almost threw up from relief.

Ludington became a very significant place to us over the two years. We would try to spend our whole summers there together and we'd go up on random weekends. He taught me about boating with his family and the intense Fourth of July parties. I hate the cold and small towns but I fell in love with Ludington. Still, I was convinced he was going to propose in Chicago at his home town.

On December 17th, we got into Ludington around 7pm, and Zach's brother Max had said that they had just lit the downtown Christmas tree and we should go take pictures. He then told me I should change to look nicer. I didn't think twice about it.

In front of the Christmas tree in downtown Ludington at a solid 20 degrees, Zach told me he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. Through tears and squealing, I'm pretty sure I said yes (they aren't kidding when they say it's a blur) but I'm still wearing the ring so we can take that as a good sign.