C & A

A little over 10 years ago, Clarissa and Allan’s love story began. Allan met Clarissa’s older brother, Scott, in his 9th grade PE class. Through Scott, Allan discovered Clarissa. He reached out to her via Instagram DM, and the two began talking on December 9th, 2014. They quickly hit it off, and soon became each other’s first boyfriend and girlfriend. They fell in love- for what a 13 and 14 year old could understand love as- and said their first ever “I love you” to one another. They dated for about 4 months before ending the relationship for logistical reasons, although neither one of them wanted the relationship to end. The following year, they reconnected and stayed in close contact for a few months. After that, they continued to stay in contact sporadically, reaching out to one another every so often for the duration of high school. Allan graduated in 2018 and went on to the University of Iowa. Allan and Clarissa’s older brother, Scott, had remained friends throughout high school. In the years following their high school graduation, they grew significantly closer. When Scott got married in July of 2021, Allan and Clarissa were both part of the wedding as groomsman and bridesmaid. They ended up being paired up to walk down the aisle together! Allan and Clarissa briefly reconnected when they realized that they had both been working in North Liberty during 2022 and 2023. As it turned out, Allan actually worked at the preschool that Clarissa’s nanny kid attended! Clarissa posted a social media story with one of her nanny kids at Penn Meadows Park, and Allan sent Clarissa a message saying that he had frequented that same park with the kids he worked with. Because of this small-world connection, Allan and Clarissa know some of the same kids and parents in the North Liberty area!

In August of 2024, Clarissa’s older brother Scott came to visit Iowa from where he now lives in Oregon. By this time, Allan and Scott had become even closer, and considered each other their best friend. Allan had just moved back to Cedar Rapids after an internship in Washington D.C. at the beginning of the year, followed by a few months living with his dad and step-mom in Indiana. Clarissa had just moved back to the area as well, after living in North Liberty for the previous months of the year. The night Scott arrived in Iowa, Clarissa and Allan both wound up at Scott’s hotel. The 3 of them, plus Clarissa’s adorable nephew Sawyer, spent that night hanging out together. Because of Allan’s close relationship with Scott, he was referred to as Sawyer’s unofficial uncle. A few days later, Allan, Clarissa, and a few more friends hung out at Scott’s hotel a second time. On both of these hotel-hang-out occasions, Clarissa was very impressed with Allan’s interactions with Sawyer. They both recognized and appreciated each other’s genuineness and kindness- the same genuineness and kindness they had both felt the other had consistently shown over the past decade. Clarissa and Allan both (unknowingly at the time) started memberships at the Collins Aerospace Recreational Center within a month of each other. Two weeks after the last time they saw each other at Scott’s hotel, Clarissa noticed Allan working out next to her. To be 100% sure it was him she saw, she messaged her brother to confirm that he went to that gym. He responded saying yes, and then reached out to Allan to tell him that Clarissa had seen him. Allan messaged Clarissa, and the two decided to plan a workout together the following week. They met up the next week for their planned workout, and instantly clicked. Neither of them had anticipated how natural the conversation would be between them. They knew that they would get along well, but they hadn’t expected the extent of the deep understanding they had for one another right off the bat. They finished their workout and decided to get food together. They continued to talk throughout their meal, and then decided they wanted to continue their evening together. Clarissa went with Allan to go buy new running shoes, and after that they decided they would go for a walk so that they could continue their conversation even further. Allan took Clarissa to the Bowman Woods walking trail, and they walked and talked for hours. Their walk started in Cedar Rapids, and after a while they realized that they had made it all the way to the Thomas Park area in Marion! They walked all the way back, and that still somehow wasn’t enough time. They continued talking in Allan’s car for another hour before deciding to go back to Allan’s step-dad’s house to talk even more. 11 hours after they had first met up at the gym, Clarissa and Allan finally decided to call it a night. However, they had both felt like they could have continued talking forever. They both remember how fun it was, the laughter they shared, and how easy and comfortable it was to be in the presence of one another. After Clarissa returned home, they messaged each other and made plans to hang out again the following week. From that point on, they began hanging out as often as possible. When they weren’t together, they were on FaceTime with each other. They grew closer and closer, getting to know and love each and every little thing about one another. They started dating- for the second time- on Clarissa’s birthday, September 24th. On October 5th, they began saying “I love you,” just as they did as kids all those years ago.

From the moment they re-entered each other’s lives, everything fell into place. Everything felt as if it was meant to be. It felt as if every moment in their lives, from the very first time they met in 2014, had been preparing them and leading them to each other. They like to refer to the Invisible String Theory, which is the idea that soulmates are connected by an unseen thread that transcends time and space, and ultimately brings them together at exactly the right time. That this was their destiny all along. All of the years of knowing each other, all of the ways they remained connected in some sense, and all of the small coincidences that placed them in the right places at the right times, is how they know that they were meant to be. They are each other’s best friends, and both have never felt a stronger, deeper, more meaningful connection than the one that they share. That deep connection is what led Allan to begin shopping for an engagement ring in December. The two had often discussed their desire to be married, and knew that that was the ultimate goal of their relationship. However, Clarissa was blissfully unaware of Allan’s active planning, and that for months, he had been searching and saving up for the perfect ring to ask her to marry him as soon as he was able. That’s exactly what Allan had hoped for. The most important detail of his proposal was that Clarissa would be completely surprised! Allan picked up the ring in the evening of February 27th, and proposed to her on February 28th, on the Bowman Woods Trail- the trail they had walked that very first time they had hung out in August. Clarissa was shocked and overjoyed, just as Allan had hoped, and of course, said yes. Clarissa and Allan are now preparing to walk down the aisle together, for the second time (almost exactly 4 years later). Only this time, instead of walking down as groomsman and bridesmaid, they will be walking down as husband and wife. They are so excited to share this special day with the people who mean the most to them- their family, and the friends they consider family. While their love story may have started 10 years ago, it has really only just begun.