Summer of 2019 is where our story began...After two years of living in a different city, Tia moved back to her hometown of Bradenton. Little did she know that after just a week back, she'd meet her future husband!

Introduced by a mutual friend, we instantly clicked. Tia was a very shy and introverted person at the time, and Patrick was super outgoing and loved being goofy. Patrick's personality made it easy for Tia to come out of her shell in a way she never had with anyone else before!

After a couple months of getting to know each other, we still hadn't made the relationship “official” yet, even though at this point, we were spending every ounce of free time together possible. Tia was getting antsy. So, one day after school, Patrick picked Tia up to hangout, just like any other day. Not more than five minutes into the car ride, Tia gathered the courage to ask Patrick the daunting “what are we” question. Catching Patrick completely off guard, he reluctantly reveals that he was planning a surprise trip to Rainbow Springs, just for the two of them, where there he would ask her to be his girlfriend. We talked it through, laughed, and ultimately decided we were happy to just make things between us official right then and there!

Once Tia got home that night, she eagerly checked the date to mark it on the calendar, in disbelief when she realized what day it was...Ironically enough, all because of Tia asking that question, and spoiling Patrick's thoughtful and romantic surprise, we have been stuck with an unfortunate anniversary date of 9/11 for the past seven years! We’ve finally decided that enough was enough, and we have to get married just so we can celebrate our anniversary on a different day!