Hi, Ian here. I want to tell you about when Rachel and I met in early 2020. Our first date was on February 11th. At that point, we had spoken on the phone but hadn't met in person yet, so we made plans for dinner at her favourite spot in downtown Traverse City and I picked her up from her place that evening. After a short drive, we parked downtown and walked into the restaurant, took our seats, and finally got to properly introduce ourselves face-to-face. “Hi.” We got to talking about our pets, what we do for work, what we studied in school and what interests us. The conversation was so easy, it felt like I had known her for years. Topics ranged from our music tastes to books and movies we liked, from our childhoods and hometowns to our struggles growing up. As we ate and talked, it became clear to both of us that we had just met a kindred spirit. Before we knew it, our plates were empty, the check was paid, and it was getting a little awkward with the waitstaff in an empty restaurant. We weren’t ready to say goodnight, so we stalled and walked down the street to get ice cream (in February) for dessert, to keep the conversation going. I was stunned. We could barely keep the conversation on one topic because we were so excited to talk about the next thing that came to mind. We wound up staying up all night, talking about everything we could think of: our favourite foods to cook, our love of the outdoors, reading each other’s horoscopes.

After our first date went so well, we made plans for a second (cooking vegan bourguignon chez Rach), a third date, and just started spending every day we could together. One evening, Rach was telling me about her day working at the hospital. She had been telling the ladies she worked with about me, and they had asked her if things were serious. She said yes, they were. I asked her if she was serious. She said she was. We had known it from the start, but we both affirmed how we felt. We made things official on Leap Day: February 29, 2020.

As 2020 and the Covid pandemic went on, it became clear to me that the time was right to buy a house. We joked (at first) about moving in together while looking through house listings, imagining a future where my dog Lorelei was running around the back yard with our future kids. When home buying was really becoming a reality, Rach came with me to look at potential houses and help me make a decision. 2 months later, and I was preparing to move into my new house in Higgins Lake. Rach's apartment lease was up for renewal in July. Sometimes, things just line up too perfectly to ignore so I asked her to take a leap of faith and move in with me. This has been our home ever since. We'll have lived together 5 years in July 2025, and we have built a wonderful life together so far. We each brought a fur-baby with us: my dog Lorelei and her cat Fang, and have added to the family a cat named Nox in 2022 and a puppy named Freya in 2023.

As we have built our life together, supported one another, and leaned on each other to navigate the labyrinth of adulthood, it became clear to both of us that we make a great team and couldn't possibly do it alone. We started joking around, saying "want to get married?" or "oh my god, marry me!" when one of us did something like make breakfast or fix a leaky faucet. We both knew that, deep down, each other really meant it. In November 2023, I was thinking ahead to our 4-year anniversary, coming up on February 29, 2024. Because of the way leap years work, it was technically the first February 29th on the calendar since we had made our relationship official 4 years prior. I thought it would be fun to retrace the steps of our first date, and I couldn't think of a better time to ask her to marry me. The day came and I'd had the engagement ring burning a hole through my pocket for three months. I hadn't spoiled the surprise yet but Rachel was on to me. We had a great dinner, even being seated at the same table we had our first date at, and went for ice cream (in February). As we were walking back to our parking spot, I let her get a little ways ahead of me on a crosswalk and said "happy anniversary. Want to get married?" Rach said yes and I told her to turn around. I got down on one knee on the sidewalk, opened the ring's box, and asked her to marry me for real this time. We're getting married June 7, 2025. We can't wait to celebrate with you!!