Luke and I met online on March 24th 2020. The pandemic had just shut down the entire world only a week prior so although we had more free time on our hands to get to know one another, all of our dates had to be virtual for the first month of our relationship. This gave us the time to get to know each other as people first. Luke affectionately refers to this time period as our "Medieval Courting Ritual."

Finally, on April 19th we decided to meet each other in person. We went to Mendon Ponds park and had a 6 feet apart date with masks and gloves. We had learned that both of our birthdays were coming up and surprised each other with little gifts on the date. I made Luke a chocolate cake and he made me a hand-painted sign with a quote from one of my favorite videos. In retrospect, his gift was way better than mine because Luke doesn't even like chocolate cake and my sign still hangs proudly in our house, but it's the thought that counts!

It was a windy day, so cake was blowing everywhere. Luke should've known what he was getting into when I brought a tape measure and measured out 6 feet between us.

After much discussion, we finally agreed to end our "Medieval Courting Ritual" and that's when I came over to Luke's apartment for the first time. To make me feel more comfortable, Luke had agreed to quarantine himself for two weeks leading up to when I would come over. At one point he had forgotten about the deal and went out to print something. Once he realized, he texted me letting me know what had happened and offered to reset the two week quarantine. I was so charmed by his honesty and his willingness to put everything on hold just to see me. For the record, I did not make him reset his quarantine and we took a risk together by seeing each other for the first time that weekend.

As the pandemic dragged on, people started to get restless and so everything we did had to be in masks. Most of our weekends were spent together in Luke's apartment. Most notably, we spent our first New Years alone in the apartment together. We got dressed up in our finest New Years attire and tried to order take out. We did not plan far enough in advance and ended up eating chicken wings in Luke's dining room on fine china.

Here was our first Christmas together. In my household, Christmas Eve is a big event where the whole family gets together, exchanges presents, plays games, and drinks egg nog. Luke really helped that Christmas to feel a lot less lonely.

By April of the following year, we had taken our first vacation together. At this point we had both been vaccinated and this trip felt like the world was finally going to go back to normal. Luke and I discovered we were compatible travel partners and we had so much fun with Luke's friends in Mexico.

In August, Luke attended his first ever annual Montauk Family Reunion. Luke knows how important my family is to me and used up all of his PTO to come out to Montauk beach and drink with my family. Like me, my family is very extroverted and loves to have a good party. Luke held his own and everyone gave their stamp of approval.

By December, Luke had closed on his very first house. We were both so excited to start this new chapter together. Since this was Luke's investment, I would have lived wherever he wanted, but we were lucky enough to land the house of our dreams even in a tough market. Our first night in our new house was not what we thought it would be. We were forced to temporarily move in early, because our roommate had contracted COVID. Our first night in the house was spent on an air mattress in our unfurnished family room. While it felt inconvenient at the time, there was something so humble and romantic about spending time together in our first house even though it was completely unfurnished. It is now a memory that I cherish.

With the endemic in sight, we began maximizing our time with our friends. We have gone to more themed parties in the past couple of years than we thought we would in a lifetime. (If anyone needs a Halloween costume, come check out our costume bin). We have made so many memories and done so many things together since the pandemic began to subside that we feel we've been dating for much longer than three years. I am so lucky to have a life partner that loves to go out and have fun.

I could fill this timeline with thousands of more photos of Luke and I over the years, but in the interest of brevity I will sum things up with the day Luke asked me to marry him. He chose to ask me on our 3rd year anniversary, exactly three years from the day we matched on Hinge. He spent two weeks sneaking out of our house to decorate our old apartment in 500 candles. He walked me from place to place and we reminisced about all of the firsts we had shared in that apartment together. Then, he asked me to spend the rest of his life with him to which I readily agreed. We celebrated with our parents and then later with some of our closest friends. It is a night that we will never forget. I am so blessed to have a life- partner who is as kind, honest, thoughtful and fun as Luke. From the day we matched three years ago, I remember telling everyone I knew that this time, things felt different. We both knew very early on that we wanted to spend forever together and we are so excited to celebrate our love with all of our beloved wedding guests. Our story just goes to show that you can find love from six-feet away even when it feels like the world is falling apart around you. We have already lived through so much together in these three short years and I know that we will continue to support one another through whatever challenges lie ahead. I love you Luke so much and I am so excited for the rest of forever with you!