Kayla and Sam first met on Bumble at the very start of the pandemic. Kayla moved to her parent's house in RI in March 2020 and decided to redownload the app. Kayla and Sam matched instantly and immediately hit it off. Since the world was navigating a global pandemic, and each state was in lockdown, Sam kept asking Kayla to chat on Facetime, not realizing that girls require a little more than 10 minutes of notice to make themselves presentable. Kayla finally agreed on April 19 for a Facetime date. From there, they had another virtual date before finally meeting in person on May 3 when they headed to Barn Island in Stonington Borough to go for a walk. Since the world was still in lockdown, they spent their early dates going for walks around Stonington, CT and Mystic, CT, cooking dinner together (sushi and tacos were a regular menu option), playing games (the card game War and Super Smash Bros. were some early favorites), and watching YouTube music videos. Once places began to open back up later that May, their first date "out" took place at Dog Watch Cafe in Mystic. Over the next ~2.5 years, Kayla and Sam did a ton together. They drove cross country and spent a month bouncing between ski towns out west, they drove down to Charlotte multiple times, they traveled to Myrtle Beach, St. Lucia, and Europe (where they saw the Northern Lights in Iceland), and they moved 3 times (to Boston, to CT, and then back to Boston)!

Sam knew that Kayla was anticipating that he might propose on their two-year anniversary on 04.19.22, so he did everything he could to throw Kayla off and make her believe that would be when it would happen. But Sam had other plans. Kayla and Sam were moving back to Boston on 04.15.22. While Kayla was packing up the apartment with her mom one Saturday, Sam abruptly opened the back door to "check out the weather." It was one of those warmer April days, so he told Kayla that they should go for a walk before dinner. Kayla was oblivious and since they always took walks together, she didn't think anything of it. She continued packing with her mom until she eventually decided it was time to kick her mom out so she could get ready. Sam took Kayla to the beach at Watch Hill for a walk. This beach is a place they have been to many times before and have shared some of their favorite memories and moments together at. Since their first date took place during a walk, Kayla didn't suspect anything, and Sam did a great job of throwing her off. While Kayla stopped to take a photo, Sam got down on one knee behind her. Still oblivious to what was going on, Sam had to call Kayla's name to finally get her to turn around. As soon as Kayla saw Sam, she of course said "YES!"