You know that saying, “Right person, wrong time?” Yeah… that was very us.
We first matched on Bumble (we know… classic pandemic love story) during the COVID era. We texted for a few weeks, had some fun convos, but neither of us was really in the space for something serious, so we quietly ghosted each other (millennial fade-out, if you will).
Flash forward about a year later — I spotted a birthday story on his Instagram and decided to shoot my shot with a casual “happy birthday!” The reply? “Don’t be a stranger.” A few days later, we somehow rematched on Bumble. We weren’t about to let it fizzle this time. We moved the convo over to Instagram and that’s when he hit me with it. The cheesiest Star Wars pickup line of all time:
“You must be the Force… because I’m attracted to you.”
I almost passed out. From laughter and slight secondhand embarrassment.
Despite that... or maybe because of it... I agreed to a first date. From the moment we saw each other in person, it just clicked. It felt like we had known each other forever.
From there? Pure magic. A month into dating we said “I love you.” A month later, we MOVED TO MAUI. We always joke that it could’ve gone two ways: one of us turns out to be a serial killer, or it becomes the greatest love story of our lives.
We lived in paradise together until the Lahaina fire took us off the island — but it did not take our hope, or our love.
After everything, we took a trip back to Maui. We checked in at our favorite restaurant, Merriman’s (where the hostess accidentally almost blew the proposal by blurting out, “Congrats on the engagement!”). Panic ensued. Silent screaming happened. But later that night, on our favorite cliffside in Kapalua, Matthew got down on one knee and asked me to be his forever.
Now, five years later — two cats, several cities, a home we love, and one perfect engagement later — we’re getting married.
Through every move, every moment, every messy, magical, perfect twist in our story — one thing has always been certain:
We’re each other’s person.
And we can’t wait to say “I do.”