Let me take you back to the summer of 2022, where our love story kicked off at Crunch Fitness. Yeah, a gym. Not how I thought things would go down, but that's where it started. There are a lot of stereotypes surrounding guys at the gym, so I never aimed to find a date there. But one night, some Crunch friends were going out, and a friend begged me to join. Luckily I did because that's where I met Tristan, like actually met him, not just waved in passing. After that, the group of friends from that night started hanging out. It got interesting because more friends kept bailing, leaving just me and Tristan. We didn't want to cancel plans, so we got used to doing stuff just the two of us.

Tristan became one of my closest friends at that time, someone I could rely on. And yeah, feelings were building up, but I never said anything because I was scared of making things awkward if he didn't feel the same. Then one day, Tristan surprised me by asking for a real date, not just a friendly hangout. We went to the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit in Kansas City (why Van Gogh means a lot to us), wandered around Zona Rosa, and grabbed dinner at Garozzos in downtown KC. When it got late, we drove back and he dropped me off, and that's when he laid the first kiss on me. I was totally caught off guard and texted all my friends right away. I just couldn't believe that this handsome, genuine, sweet, accomplished guy kissed me, and liked me. It was a lot to take in.

After that first date, Tristan and I quickly made things official as a couple. Things moved fast for us, but we were perfect together so there was no point in slowing down. Our tastes in music, movies, and food were the same, and our personalities and sense of humor aligned. Life was exciting with him, and suddenly, I was in a place of "I can't imagine life without this guy," and turns out, he felt the same way.

Skipping way ahead to keep this brief, in August 2023, we got engaged! And now, here we are, planning the perfect day to celebrate our love story with the people we care about the most.

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