IF YOU ASK MARISSA: Our love story started back in August of 2018 and as most love stories start, nowadays, we ended up meeting on Tinder. I was counseling at band camp at this point of the year, and I mentioned to one of my best friend's, that I was going to delete the dating apps because I was just over the messages and nothing going anywhere in the real world. But, my best friend said that maybe I just needed to give Tinder a little refresh. We sat there and updated my profile for a few hours, and after that I finally got a message! This message was "Your Name is Gorgeous", I can't believe that worked haha. Anyways, we started messaging every day after that and all the freshman girls in our cabin really wanted to know all the details...which I did not share. However, once I made it home from counseling, Brandon and I found a date that worked best for us to meet. On August 8th, 2018 I drove to Howard City and we met in Leppink's grocery store parking lot so that he could drive me to The Gate, bowling alley in Big Rapids. So we got to The Gate bowled for a while, where I kicked his butt, and we ate some pizza. And after that he asked if I wanted to go with him to the campground his parents were at for the weekend, which was actually a place I have been to before with my family, Woods & Water Campground. This seemed a bit crazy to me because we could have seen each other so many times when I was here with my family, and we would have never known.

But, even crazier than that I said yes, we went to the campground, and I met his parents, sister, and couple of his cousins on the FIRST DATE!!! I would have never done that before, but I didn't want out date to end. Once we spent some time there, we decided it was getting late and I needed to get back home, so he took me back to my car and we KISSED, another thing I don't do on the first date...

We kept spending time together, and we would switch every weekend between my parents and his parents. Then on September 8th, 2018 he asked me to be his girlfriend. Our lives did not slow down after that, because we decided to sign a lease together in December of 2018 and by June 2019 we had moved in together. And then on December 17th, 2023 he finally decided to ask me to marry him. And that is where we are today! Soon to be Husband and Wife 💖

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