We met for the first time in university! It was September - the start of a new term of classes for incoming first-years at the University of Waterloo and, for us, the start of a long-lasting friendship and relationship. After being introduced during one of our first-week lectures, we grew closer as friends while visiting campus club events, going to parties, and studying together. It was already pretty clear that Izzy was someone special, because no one else would have been able to get Ashley to wake up before class to study - and stop for coffees on her way! After many more months of close friendship, we finally admitted our feelings for each other at the end of school year, but sadly had to soon part ways as Izzy returned home to Alberta for the summer. Even so, we continued talking almost constantly (either over messages or on video calls). Izzy would stay up late practically every night to talk to Ashley after she finished her night shift - 2:30 AM in Ontario is even later in Alberta, but Izzy was always there waiting to chat. Those late-night conversations were when we truly fell in love. Midway through our summer apart, we met up in Alberta (along with some other friends), and Ashley asked Izzy to be her girlfriend on Canada Day - which is why we’re so excited to be able to celebrate our wedding with you on Canada Day, 8 years later!

In late March 2020, Ashley was living and working in NYC and Isabelle was finishing up school in Waterloo. When Isabelle's classes went online due to the pandemic, she decided to move up her timeline for joining Ashley in the US - so she packed up the apartment, sold all the furniture and hopped in her car. Unfortunately, as a non-essential traveller, the fast-changing restrictions meant Isabelle wasn’t able to cross the border, so Ashley decided to fly home to stay with her in Canada instead. And thus, we entered a 14 day quarantine together in an empty apartment with nothing but an air mattress, camping chairs, and lots of love. The day our quarantine ended, we were understandably excited to get out of the apartment, and since we were planning on leaving town shortly, Ashley announced that she had planned a little “goodbye to Waterloo” outing. She had made a list of all the spots that had been important to us over the years, and we spent the day driving around town visiting them all: the classroom where we had first met, all the places we had lived together, even the restaurant where we first had lunch together. At each stop we reminisced about the time we had spent together, telling stories and laughing about details we hadn’t thought about in years. The very last stop was the park where we'd had a picnic on our first date, and while we were walking around, Ashley got down on one knee and pulled out a ring. It was a total surprise to Isabelle, but she said yes without a second thought because she knew that if they could make it out of that quarantine and still want to be around each other, they could make it through anything!