Her sister. His roommate from college. Dan and Molly met at a combined bachelor/bachelorette party for Molly’s sister, Emily and Dan’s college roommate, Taylor. Two days later Molly invited Dan to be her guest at another friend’s upcoming wedding. Two weeks after that we went to a wedding in Cleveland and had the most unlikely, yet unforgettable, first date ever.

For nearly two years we dated long-distance; Dan living in Pittsburgh and Molly living in D.C. We took turns driving to visit each other nearly every single weekend for that entire time—almost 50,000 miles traveled between the two of us—and every mile was worth it.

Two days before Christmas—Dan and Molly embarked on a road trip to his grandparents’ house for a Christmas party. Dan made a slight detour on the way out of town to stop at an overlook above the city of Pittsburgh, which is where we spent a part of our first weekend together. Dan told Molly that they were exchanging gifts privately with each other before they were to exchange gifts with family later in the week. He handed Molly a photo album with a collection of photographs and dates of their favorite memories. On the last page there were no photos but instead a note dated with that day’s date that read: “Dan proposes to Molly.” As Molly turned to that page Dan got down on one knee and pulled out the ring and said, “I want the next photos of you in this album to be not as my girlfriend but as my wife.”