Ivan Polanco and Paris Counter grew up in the small town of Monroe, WA, their love story has quite the timeline and begins with Myspace in the 2000's.

A Few messages exchanged and they had each other's gamertags and plans to play Halo together after school. Over the years Ivan and Paris would pop into each other's lives in some unconventional ways. A flirtatious message here, a rejection there.... But not a complete rejection, more like a "not now" kind of conversation.

Paris would spam the "Invite" button to her Xbox live parties, Ivan would join for a few minutes here and there, eventually they did play a few rounds of Halo, but with the passing of time their love story would take a pause.

In the Summer of 2018, Paris who was living in Puyallup, WA, had returned to her hometown to visit her parents. While in Monroe, she wanted to make the most out of it and felt the urge to do something spontaneous. Opening her Contacts on her phone she scrolled until a familiar name passed by ... She scrolled back up to it, it was Ivan.

Paris, without any warning, gave Ivan a call and invited him out for a drink.... He agreed! One catch though, After Paris informs her parents of her plans, they get a little envious of her spending quality time with someone other than them for this Monroe visit and decided that they would tag along with her.

So, there they were, Paris, Tracy, Lorne, and Ivan, all together and sharing some drinks and laughter. That night a connection was made, so Paris decided she would ask Ivan out to PAX with her (She had extra passes) in the next coming week. The two made their plans, and began to talk non-stop every day until the event.

The nights leading up to the event Paris worked her graveyard and spoke to Ivan on the phone every night. Ivan would stay up sometimes until 4 a.m. talking to Paris, sharing photos, songs, videos, getting to know each other's interests and humor on a deeper level. Having to work early in the morning did not matter for him, there wasn't much sleep to be had with so much love in the air brewing.

PAX comes, and they hold hands the whole time. Paris confesses her feelings to Ivan and asks if they can agree to not see other people, Ivan replied "Lets just date!" and that began their love story <3

Paris moved to Seattle at the end of 2018, and for three years Ivan would visit her every weekend. in 2021 they moved in together to a beautiful apartment in the heart of the city...

So much happened between today and those earlier years, but after 6 years of dating, Ivan asked Paris to be his Bride in July of 2024.

Things to Do

Things to Do coming soon!