As you may know, Sam has been going to Fire Island since she was a baby. Joe always wanted to work on the Fire Island Ferries and started working there as soon as he was old enough. When Sam was a teenager she noticed a cute deckhand, later turned captain. She started calling him "boat boyfriend" to her friends.

Both Sam and Joe have always been interested in photography, so when Instagram first came out, Sam searched #fireisland to admire other people's photographs of her happy place. She came across some pictures that "boat boyfriend" posted and decided to follow him. Joe recognized her from the ferries and they continued to like and comment on each other's pictures for a few months. Long before Instagram DM's were a thing, Sam discovered an app called Instamessage and posted a picture of the logo on her own Instagram. Joe commented asking, "what's that?" That is when, in 2012, Sam told her best friend, Danielle, to start writing her wedding speech.

Hook, line, and anchor - he slid into her DM's.

Sam and Joe bought a house in Brightwaters at the perfect time - right before the housing market skyrocketed - they closed on their house in April 2020. Between cosmetic renovations and waiting for months for furniture to be delivered, they are finally making their house a home. They love to go bike riding around their neighborhood, around the Brightwaters lakes, and down to the Great South Bay. Joe thought it would be perfect to propose right in their own neighborhood so they could relive the beautiful memory regularly. It was the end of Sam's first week back at work in September 2021. She had just finished setting up her classroom before the kids started back at school the following Monday. Joe told Sam he made dinner reservations for that night. On her way home, he said he was at TJ Finley's with Sadie (their pawfect pup) and one of Joe's best friends, Eric, if she wanted to meet them there. Sam didn't think he was going to propose because it seemed to be a very casual evening and she figured whenever he proposed, it would be in Fire Island. Joe wanted to go for a sunset bike ride before they went to dinner which was nothing out of the ordinary since they're those - beach cruiser, cute wicker basket, matching cup holder - bike people now. They rode down to the bay and then started heading back home. Joe wanted to stop at the lakes to watch the sunset. It was there that he got down on one knee and asked Sam to marry him, in which she replied, "You better believe it!" When they got home, they were so excited to tell Sadie and James (their purrfect cat) that they were officially going to be a family.