Holly and Phil met by pure accident. Holly was living in San Angelo working her first nursing job. Tinder was new and Holly being the only single one at work was talked into making an account just so that we could all see what it was about. After swiping left on A LOT of people and right on a few one night she matched with this handsome guy that said he lived in Ireland. Holly was trying to be more adventurous and always loved her travels to Europe so she swiped right. But she was going to leave it up to him to start a conversation. Phil was working in Killarney and one night he had a few too many pints and was dreaming about going to a rugby match in Houston so he placed his location to Texas and started swiping. As Philip tells it the next morning he woke up hungover and saw that he had matched with “this gorgeous redhead” We started messaging back and forth constantly. Holly was having a hard time in San Angelo. She was really missing home and was burnt out from working so much. One night while at work on a whim she looked up flights to Ireland and found an awesome deal! Holly sent a message to Philip and asked what he would do if he found out that Holly had purchased a plane ticket. Philip was apprehensive at first but Holly quickly reassured him that they needed to meet each other in person to see if the spark was there. If it wasn’t then she would just continue on her solo vacation that lined up with her 29th birthday. Philip guided Holly on how to navigate the buses to get from Shannon airport to Killarney (the only time she would fly into Shannon because forget that Limrick bus exchange). Philip met Holly at the bus stop and the spark was electric. He walked her to her hotel…and then promptly went to work. Philip worked 8 of the 10 days that Holly was there but they spent every moment he wasn’t at work together. When it was time for Holly to leave they had agreed that something was there and it was worth continuing to explore. Holly returned home and the following month she moved back to Dallas and in the same weekend her niece Jane was born! Holly and Phil’s relationship continued to blossom because their schedules lined up perfectly. With Holly working night shift when she was getting off work in the mornings Phil would be getting ready for work and when she was waking up to go to work Phil would be finishing up work. Holly went back to Ireland again in February 2020 and after she returned back to the states…the whole world shut down. Throughout the Covid pandemic Holly and Phil continued to video chat and send messages back and forth. When Holly’s father passed away in June of 2021 Phil was Holly’s rock and support. He was heartbroken that he couldn’t come to America to support her during that time. We had decided whoever’s country opened their borders first would be the one who traveled first. Luckily for Holly Ireland opened their borders first and due to her working so much during Covid she had a lot of PTO that needed to be used. Holly went to Ireland and stayed for a month. Phil finally introduced her to his family and they were wonderful. In January of 2022 the stars aligned and we were able to turn a negative into a positive and Philip came to Texas! He originally was going to stay for just a few weeks but after he was here and we discussed it he ended up staying for the 3 months that he was allowed to stay without a visa. When Phil returned to Ireland he was back for just 2 days when he sent a message to Holly’s mom asking if he could marry her. Phil was so excited that he sent a screen shot of the conversation to Holly’s mom and just said ”well?” Holly immediately said yes but Phil said she had to wait until they saw each other again so that he could ask her properly. In July 2022 Holly went back to Ireland and they got officially engaged! Then started the 3 year long saga of trying to get a fiancé visa for Philip to move to America. And now starts our 90 day fiancé story…