Kate, a best friend of Megan’s from high school and Leeann’s college roommate, got married in the fall of 2016. Though Leeann remembers pictures of Meg on her college dorm room wall, she had never met the girl. It wasn’t until Kate’s bachelorette party that they were introduced. As fate would have it, they were hotel roomies for the weekend. Though they shared a bed that night, there were zero sparks flying as Megan insisted on chatting about existential thoughts and feelings whilst Leeann was all but begging her to shut up so she could watch the summer Olympic events that were on in the background.

At the end of the weekend before Leeann headed back home to DC, she asked Megan for her number. Her reasoning? She wanted to send Meg an Autostraddle article called “Everything my gay self needs and more” thinking her newly single friend might be interested in a self-improvement regimen. This message launched an intermittent text exchange that remained platonic for some time. After many months they shared a conversation wherein they agreed on their feelings: they both hoped to meet someone in the future similar to one another. They recall the words “not you but someone like you” were used.

In the pursuit of finding someone “just like Leeann” Megan grew more and more interested in using her phone– a practice that was historically unfamiliar to her. She didn’t want to miss a call from the witty, self-possessed academic who also happened to be looking for someone ‘just like her.” As time went on, Leeann grew curious about Megan’s potential as girlfriend material. She executed a data dive by copying and pasting their entire texting conversation into a Google Doc and sending it to her friend Carly for a full analysis and assessment. Carly’s stamp of approval inspired Leeann to shoot her shot.

After months of friendship Leeann made a bold phone call with a proclamation that would spur a long-distance relationship. Though the distance had its challenges, the fuel of vulnerability, humor, and hope for the future helped their love grow even with 648 miles between them. In 2019 they closed down the distance when Leeann moved to Grand Rapids after graduating PA school from George Washington. The support of friends and family kept their love nurtured and full as they began to build their life together in Grand Rapids.

The couple still stands by their 1,168 day engagement as their love grew leaps and bounds in that time. This in-between allowed them to buy a home, accomplish almost zero home improvement projects, build out a whole-ass camper van, and continue to plan trips and parties with their friends, as is their custom. Most importantly, it allowed them to accept each other for who they truly are: a pair of happy, healthy, ruthless procrastinators.

The humble beginning outlined above was a lovely season but it doesn’t hold a candle to what they have built since their record long engagement. Today, they have more love than their hearts can bear for one another. For each other they have become communication champions, dreammakers, teachers of love languages, novice gardeners, jogging partners, back scratchers, inventors of strange languages, and storytellers of elaborate narratives surrounding a family of monkeys in valor, tasseled vests.

We can’t wait to continue growing the love we’ve made with you alongside us.

See you September 21, 2024!