We’re getting married and we can’t wait to share our special day with our loved ones!

We were talking online and through text message for about a week before our first date. For our first date, we met at the Olive Garden in Manchester. We went inside and had an early dinner. We talked and laughed and there was not a moment of silence. We decided that we didn’t want the date to end, so we continued by driving to the Revolutions bowling alley and played two games of bowling. Even though it was our first date, neither of us were going to go easy on the other (we are both VERY competitive). We each won a game, but still, we didn’t want the date to end just yet. We continued to a little farm stand that sold ice cream and sat outside in the beautiful weather under a tent to eat our ice cream. The tent was set up with a giant checkerboard, and being the people we are, we couldn’t resist. We played a game of checkers, and continued to talk about ourselves and our interests. I continued to tell Joe about one of my favorite games, Heads Up. He agreed to play! This was the silliest part of our date and I was completely charmed by his sense of humor, silliness, and continued kindness throughout the whole date. We hugged as we left and even talked about deleting the dating app that we met on. We promised to text each other when we got home. Later that night, Joe mentioned that he wanted to ask me something but was afraid to. I told him he could ask me anything. He wanted to ask me to be his girlfriend, but wasn’t sure if it was too soon after the first date. I felt so good about the way it had gone, that I said “consider the app deleted”. This was the first step on our way to a beautiful life together.

On the morning of August 1st, We went to Elizabeth Park with our moms and Joe’s sister for a breakfast picnic. We enjoyed our breakfast on the grass in the beautiful park near the flowers. We went for a short walk after breakfast on our own and left the family behind. We found a bench and I sat down. Joe got on his knee and told me how much he loved me and asked me to “share this whole new world” with him. I was beyond surprised, and little did I know, our families followed slowly behind us and were a part of the special day. We continued by walking through the rose gardens and into the gorgeous gazebo. It was a day that we will always remember!

In the fall of 2020, Joe and I started looking for a place where we could really start our lives together. We went to many house tours and nothing quite felt right. We both saw a posting of a house in Vernon and it looked beautiful from the pictures. We had to go see it. We took the house tour and fell in love. The next day, we put an offer in for the house. By that evening, there were four offers on the table and we were in a bidding war. We wrote a letter about why this house would be the perfect place to start our lives together, and the next day, our offer was accepted. We went through the process: inspections, reviewing the contract, talking with lawyers, and our final walkthrough. On November 20, 2020, we closed on our very first home. The following weekend we gathered our familes to help and we moved in together. This was exciting for both of us, as we really got to start living our lives together in our new home!