Sometimes life has a funny way of bringing two people together. Pat and I first matched on a dating app in the most unexpected way. At the time, I was living in Virginia Beach after grad school, and Pat was instructing the T-44 for the Navy in Corpus Christi, Texas. By pure chance, we both ended up in Arizona—me for a wedding and Pat for a student’s cross-country training trip. Our locations overlapped just long enough for us to match, and that one small swipe changed everything.

As we started talking, we realized Pat was preparing to move to Virginia Beach—the same city I was already living in. The timing was perfect. On the very day Pat arrived in Virginia Beach, before even unloading his car full of all his stuff, we met for our very first date. We had an early dinner, and before the night was over, Pat had invited me to a New Year’s Eve event the next day. From then on, we were inseparable.

We spent the next year dating in Virginia Beach while Pat finished his time in the Navy. Once he accepted a job with American Airlines, we moved to Dallas and began building a life here. Dallas is now home, and we can’t wait to celebrate our wedding day surrounded by family and friends before beginning the next chapter of our story together.