our story began back in 2020 when we met on the Bumble dating app. after months of texting, we finally met in person and went on our first date in October!

we've made beautiful memories over the last few years together, and we're so excited to make many more as husband and wife!

let's take a trip down memory lane!

our very first picture together at the zoo lights back before we made our relationship official.

this was the night rena met mike’s family! what a night this was!

our first Christmas together. this was a big day because it was the first time mike met the majority of rena’s family!

our first Valentine's Day together!

our first 4th of July was spent with family, amazing cold brew coffee, feeding giraffes at the zoo, and fireworks!

such a fun weekend of meeting rena’s very extended family, enjoying the Melon Festival activities, and attending our first Cleveland Air Show together!

(also, couples that wear the same shirts together, stay together)

first-time wedding dates, rena got to meet the majority of mike's extended family, lots of fall festivities (it is our favorite time of the year!), and Trunk-or-Treat where mike scared all the little kids and made them cry with his t-rex and cowboy boot costume!

in november rena and winnie moved in, and as you can see, mike was very excited.

our first Christmas living together! it has been so fun to create our own little traditions over these last few years -- like establishing that mike’s airplane ornament that he got from his grandpa is the first to go on the tree every year!

went back to the zoo lights and tried to re-create our first picture together! this holiday tradition will always be special for us.

this 4th of july together was one we'll always remember because mike had the revolutionary idea of putting an air mattress in the bed of the truck with pillows and blankets for fireworks! firework watching has forever been changed!

we put our relationship to the test and completed our first major home renovation project together, with the help of rena’s dad! surprisingly it was a pleasant, fun experience, and we didn't want to kill each other. we think we'll do just fine in marriage!

we embarked on our first little getaway together to Hocking Hills! made a pit-stop at the Circleville Pumpkin Show on the way there, and rena experienced her first “big kid arcade” aka. casino! little did rena know about what was to come in just a few days...

during the Hocking Hills trip, mike asked rena to marry him at Conkle's Hollow! it will forever be a special place for us.

a fun little story about the proposal:

mike had planned to propose to rena at a beautiful clearing overlooking the valley. we passed three of those cleanings, but mike didn’t think they looked like the one in the pictures he saw on the internet, so we kept walking. finally mike realized that those were his opportunities, that he missed, and decided on his back-up plan to hike to “airplane rock.”

we wandered off course to attempt to find this airplane rock, but after taking too many forks in the road, we decided it was a lost cause because it was getting late and we didn’t want to be lost at dark..

after making it back to where we veered off course at Conkle’s Hollow, mike asked rena if she wanted to go back the way we came (past the beautiful clearings we already saw) or continue on the rest of the trail. of course, rena thought it was silly to go back the way we already came from and wanted to finish the rest of the trail. mike simply wanted to go back to his proposal spot.

we made it to a really pretty green and rocky area that rena wanted to take pictures of, so she asked to use mike’s phone since he had the better camera quality. she wandered ahead taking pictures, while mike was behind preparing to ask one of the biggest questions of his life!

when rena turned around to give him his phone back, there he was, all teary-eyed, on one knee, with the most beautiful ring. it's a core memory she hopes to never forget.

an older couple caught the tail-end of our engagement and wanted to take our picture. they ended up sharing that they were there celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, which made the moment even more special... celebrating the start of our life together with people celebrating 50 years together.

the entire day makes us laugh simply because it was so beautiful and perfectly imperfect, just like our love!

another Halloween together in the books, and our first time carving pumpkins and handing out candy! we're trying to convince the neighborhood kids that we're the cool house in the neighborhood with all the good candy and the cute cat. according to the neighbors, we're the first ones in our little cal de sac that has ever got kids to come down our street for trick-or-treat. rena wears that like a badge of honor... but in reality it's because we're the first ones to actually hand out candy...

christmas this year looked a lot different for us. rena's dad has just had a heart attack, underwent a five-way bypass surgery and spent the holidays in the hospital. it was an extremely rough time for the family, but it showed that you never know what is going to happen and that you should never take the people you love for granted. always tell them you love them whenever you have the opportunity. we spent the holiday soaking up every little moment with our loved ones.

in june we celebrated one year until our wedding day by getting our engagement pictures done! if any of you know mike, you know that this photo session was a very funny and awkward one. but our amazing photographer made us look like a cute, slightly-less awkward couple haha. the wedding planning fun was well underway at this point too!

rena finally got to fly with mike on his last day of work with Thorsport and see that he really does what he says he does for his job. it's always so special to see the person you love doing what they love!

our little family grew by another set of four paws! we adopted our lovely little Fiona together! don't let mike tell you otherwise.. this cat is his little baby!

we took our first out-of-state trip together to orlando!