Melina's POV: Anthony & I went to the same elementary, middle, & high schools, but we weren't really friends, we only knew of one another. In 2019 we both moved back to Orlando around similar times. Anthony sent me a friend request on FB; I thought he was another Anthony I met the previous week so I sent him a message since I saw we went to the same high school as me & he didn't mentioned it in our "previous" conversation 😂 We couldn't stop talking & learning about each other & eventually we decided to meet up at a 2000s bar crawl downtown. When I met him in person, I experienced a rom-com movie moment: he had this genuinely good aura to him & I instantly felt an attraction, like my soul was telling me to keep staying around this incredible soul. I was with my girlfriends that were with me when I met the "other" Anthony & they convinced me that he was the same guy 🤣 Later on that night we kept talking &dancing together & I mentioned to him we should go to the other spot we met at last week. That's when Ant said "Ummm I was in Pensacola last week..." I then realized that he was someone completely different from the person I met a week prior, he just happened to send me a friend request the same night I met the other Anthony🤣 It's like the universe conspired for us to finally meet the way we were supposed to & we have been inseparable ever since. When I was in middle school: I had a thought to myself "what if I've already met my soulmate & I just didn't realize it yet..." Turns out middle school Melina was right and I'm so incredibly grateful we found each other as adults when we were finally ready to meet the one 💙💖 Anthony's POV: After being away from Orlando for over 8 years, I decided to move back to the city where I spent most of my teenage years and try a fresh start in life. I was adding old contacts via Facebook to try and reconnect as I was going back and forth for work between cities every other week. One of those friends (Melina) messaged me out of the blue one night with a simple "👋🏽". After a few minutes of not responding, she said "I didn't realize you went to Boone High School". It was at that moment we had an instant connection to talk about, and that conversation turned from a friendly catch up to a multi hour conversation late into the night. Melina had mentioned going to a bar crawl with some friends the next night and I knew that was my opportunity to finally start making friends in Orlando. The next day, I not so obviously self invited myself to the 2000s bar Crawl, and decided to take myself out of my introverted self and get out there and meet people. Melina and I instantly hit it off, and it was like we had been friends for years, even though we had barely known each other growing up. As soon as I saw her, I thought, she is even more beautiful in person! Throughout the night, everything felt right, the way we laughed, communicated, and danced the night away! Later that night, Melina had lost her car keys, and her friends were pretty tired so I got them an Uber home. I drove Melina back home to make sure she got home safe and picked her up the next morning to take her to brunch and look for her keys across downtown Orlando. That morning, while we were both initially nervous to start something, we knew we wanted to give each other a chance and started our adventures together! Concerts, dates across Central FL, trips to Chicago, and over a month away from each other within the first few months of dating, we really hit the ground running! Ever since then, while we have always had our ups and downs (what relationship doesn't, we have been getting stronger and we are finally ready to take the next step towards creating a family! I'm truly blessed to be marrying my best friend! Fate truly has a way of bringing two people together 💙

Ant & I took the Brightline down to Miami at around 5am, he made me think we were going to spend the weekend in Miami/ Ft. Lauderdale. When we got there we had lunch at Doroles But You Can Call Me Lolita. Ant told me since we have a place to stay in Ft. Lauderdale, why don't we just get a hotel and stay the night in Miami, which I was definitely down for. We got our hotel, took a 30 min nap and he told me there was a cute outdoor market we could go to so we got ready and took an uber there. The uber pulled up to Vizcaya Gardens, we visited there this summer for our 4 year anniversary and absolutely loved it! There weren't too many people around so we walked around for a little bit and he took me to this beautiful gazebo on the property. We looked out at the water and Ant said "Is that a dolphin by the sign?" Gullible me kept looking for it and asking specifics for where exactly it was😆 Ant called out to me, I looked back at him, and he was down on 1 knee with the engagement ring in his hand💍 After saying yes, I saw Carolina, our friend who's a photographer, taking pictures and videos of us so we spent another hour taking pictures and videos at Vizcaya during Golden hour. If that wasn't enough we went back to the hotel, told me to get ready and we pulled up to get dinner at... HELLS KITCHEN in Miami!! We had a 8 person booth to ourselves where we got to see everyone working in the kitchen and they gave us a free bottle of champagne to celebrate. The next morning we took Brightline back to Orlando and Ant told me I had 30 min to pack 5 days of cold clothes. My parents were waiting at our place, helped me pack, and took us to the airport. In line at TSA he finally told me that we were going to London, Paris, Switzerland, Venice, Florence, and Rome Italy to start our newly engaged lives✨ Best way to start our lives together forever 💙💖