Sometimes we lie and say we met at a bar or concert, but in reality we met on a dating app. But just because our love story starts out the same as 36% of other engaged couples who met online, (thank you available Hinge data) it’s been anything but ordinary. We started chatting back and fourth at around 2pm on March 17th and by 8pm he called me on the phone…our first date was the March 18th. If you know Holland this should come as no surprise.

We will both admit that our first date was fun but full of nerves. As it should be, we were virtual strangers to each other. But he opened doors for me, brought me HEB butter tortillas (which is a whole other story), and gave me a hug at the end of the date, a true gentleman.

Our second date was the night we both later agreed was the moment we knew we’d get married one day. We met up at a local restaurant that also had pickleball courts and later went to a drive-in movie. We had talked on the phone every night for hours after our first date and I knew that 1.) I already really liked him and 2.) If this was going to go anywhere, I was going to have to show my goofy side to see if he could match the energy. At the end of the night, Holland drove me back to my car at the restaurant and we ended up talking about Taylor Swift. I asked if he listened to her song 22 on his birthday and when he told me he hadn’t, I blasted it on the radio and we were both screaming/singing to it with the windows down. We locked eyes while singing the chorus and I know it sounds stupid but that’s how we knew.

Since that night, we’ve been on thousands of other amazing dates, drove 30 minutes every other day to see each other for a little over a year, and then moved in together in McKinney, where we both started new jobs. I had mentioned that I would want to be dating for at least a year and a half before getting engaged. At 1 year, 6 months, and 8 days, he asked me to marry him. We both feel like the luckiest people in the world to be marrying out best friend and can’t wait to celebrate with all of the people closest to us. Cheers to love!