Mrs. & Mrs. Ryan 2024

CC: Even though we met on Tinder, there was no pretense as far as our shared goal of dating to marry. Despite Cass thinking my profile was fake at first, she still swiped, which will always blow my mind. In another timeline, she didn’t take a chance on a potential catfish and we probably took a bit longer to find each other. Luckily, we matched instantly once she swiped right on me. I was so amused by her charming yet silly lines and radical honesty; I rarely meet people who talk as much as I do. Within 24 hours we had planned our first date, had an entire conversation (started by Cassidy) that involved imagining our hypothetical future wedding, and then moved our first date up to the day after we started chatting because we couldn’t wait to meet in person. Cassidy stood on top of her car so I wouldn’t have to wander around looking for her at night, and after that first date driving around San Francisco and talking for hours we were pretty much inseparable. We moved in together exactly one year to the day from our first date, August 13th. CR: I’ve always been guilty of wearing my heart on my sleeve, many times I’ve shown my care and adoration in overwhelming ways. As a lonely twenty year old in San Francisco, Tinder became my best friend. After many first dates, many ghostings, and many disappointing interactions, I wondered if maybe romance wasn’t in the cards for me. It was within our first conversation I realized I had met someone special; someone witty, loving, beautiful, intelligent, and willing to accept my flood of emotions and passions. After only a few days of dating this incredible person, I had to send a text, announcing in confidence that I had met my future wife. Chloë’s life became intertwined with mine from the moment I first held her in my arms.

CR: Proposing was never an ‘if’ but instead a ‘when’. After living together for multiple years, we fell into a domestic routine that honestly made us feel married already. There were always reasons to delay the proposal, a worldwide pandemic being a huge one. Yet, I couldn’t keep waiting, with encouragement from my family and hers, I began planning the proposal. For eight months, I wrote and dated poems for and about Chloë. These poems ranged from the mundane to extreme emotions, and it was all pieces of our love I wanted to show to her. I presented her with the book of poems, got down on one knee, and asked her to read one titled ‘The Question’. CC: Even though I knew Cassidy had spoken with some of my family and friends about her plans to propose, I was not prepared at all for the feeling of reading the poems she'd been so expertly hiding from me! I had a feeling about the timing of 'the moment', just because of the location and the dress I was wearing, but it still felt absolutely surreal to look up from a love poem and see her kneeling in front of me with the ring. I'll never forget sitting by the water, which we fell out of a canoe into the night before, unable to stop smiling and putting the ring on upside-down because I was too ecstatic. It was private, sweet, and so 'us'; I love being her muse, and I'm happy to fulfill that role for the rest of my life.