Our parents have told us that we were so inseparable that our teacher tried splitting us up in class because we wouldn't play with any of the other kids.

We went to different school districts starting in kindergarten and kept in touch for a little bit by having playdates and attending some of each other's birthday parties, but then didn't talk for more than 10 years.

Around Thanksgiving 2017, Catherine received a random Facebook message from Paul asking if she was the Catherine he'd been best friends with all those years ago.

Paul had just moved to Virginia after college for work while Catherine was still living in New York. Paul was back in Poughkeepsie for the holiday break and had been watching old home videos with his family when a clip of us at our preschool graduation came on.

His brother asked if he knew how Catherine was doing (thanks Brian!). Shortly after, we exchanged numbers. When Paul came home again for Christmas break, we planned to meet up at a local bar called Schatzi's. We later found out that "schatzi" is a German term of endearment that translates to "sweetheart" - which is very fitting considering we're preschool sweethearts!

When we met up for the first time as adults, we spent a few hours catching each other up to speed with what we had been up to for the last decade and change. Our conversation flowed so well that Paul invited Catherine to his parent's house for their annual New Year's Eve party.

Catherine could already sense that Paul was someone really special that she wanted in her life, even if it just had to be as a friend. We rang in 2018 together and a few days later Paul went back to Virginia.

Fast forward to September 2019: Catherine wished Paul a happy birthday, but almost didn't reach out because she was so nervous.

Soon after that we started talking on the phone for hours into the early morning, and three weeks later Catherine was on the way to Virginia to visit Paul! She drove 10 hours and knew she wouldn't do that for just anyone. That weekend changed everything for us in the best way possible and we finally got the timing right to be together! Our wedding date, 10/12, is really special to us because it's also the day that we started dating back in 2019.

Our relationship has been full of more love and laughter than we ever could've envisioned. Plus, we think we're even more inseparable now than we were as kids!