This is a description of our love story of how we felt and thought when we first met, began dating, and of our proposal. Below, you will read about the beginning of our love story. From a God-orchestrated first meeting to our proposal, we hope to share a little tidbit of our story!

Katrina's Perspective: I had absolutely no idea who Jae was, but it seemed like almost everyone else did. My first memory of him was during our SALT&LIGHT zoom meeting. However, in every zoom meeting, he never had his camera on. I only knew him as the guy who randomly spoke and exposed his legal name for rooming purposes per XF asking. As I arrived at SALT (arrived 1 day late, long story), I still didn't know Jae, but I remember the very first service I went to, XF announced a shoutout specifically about Jae, sharing to everyone that he is still single. I thought it was so funny and I lowkey felt bad for the dude.. little did I know that I would be his future bride. 3 days had passed at SALT, and we had no small groups or led any ministries together, but we eventually found each other. Jae and I had our first conversation in the hotel lobby. We shared what we did on our free day and soon our conversation led to more. We spoke for quite a while, about 2 hours, but it didn't bother me at all. I enjoyed every second of it. Later that night, as I left the conversation and headed back to my room, I remember telling my sister, Euphrates, "That was the best conversation I've had the whole conference so far." Even after the conference, that first conversation I had with Jae was still the best. Jae's Perspective: If you know Katrina and I, you'll might find that we have a plethora of mutual friends so I find it incredibly insane that we've never met prior to SALT&LIGHT2024 in Australia. Before we met face-to-face, my only knowledge of Katrina was that pretty girl on our SALT&LIGHT Zoom calls. Out of everyone, she stuck out to me as the cutest, but I had no intention of dating at the time. SALT&LIGHT 2024 comes around months later and oddly enough Katrina and I did not meet for the first 3 days. With the ministries and busy schedules, we somehow managed to avoid each other amongst the other 80-90 attendees. Up until our actual meeting, I only recall 3 interactions with her. 1) Her and her group arrived late to SALT&LIGHT and I walked by them and said, "Welcome to Australia!" Katrina doesn't recall this if you ask her. 2) I saw her in our prayer meeting before our Friday night service since we were both serving that night (She did offering. I was the stage manager). 3) I briefly saw her and our good friend, Mayla, after they had just gone swimming and we met at the entrance of an elevator as I walked out and they walked in. That was 3 interactions for 3 days into our SALT&LIGHT trip. It wasn't until the 4th day where we actually met and introduced ourselves after free-time at like 9PM. Luckily she was talking to another good friend of ours, shoutout Samien, and I approached the two of them in conversation. What I thought would be a short conversation ended up being a 2 hour conversation in the lobby of our hotel and I have absolutely no regrets. That conversation alone stirred something in my heart to pursue who I get to call my bride very soon!

Katrina's perspective: A little over a month after SALT goes by before I reunited with Jae. A crazy coincidence that can only be done by God, we were given the opportunity to meet again in FL. Upon arriving in FL, Jae had agreed to pick me up from the Orlando airport. As I arrived and went to baggage claim, I saw someone at a distance holding a poster with my name on it. As I got closer, Jae was holding a beautifully drawn and decorative poster that asked me to be his girlfriend. I, of course, said yes. Technically, our first one on one date was at Starbucks in the Millennial Mall, Orlando, but I'll always say that it was going to see Aespa. Jae had an extra ticket to the concert, and it just so happened the day after the concert, was my sisters cheer competition. It was such a coincidence that they were all near each other. We had an amazing time at the concert and at the cheer competition. During this trip, Jae also met my parents for the first time. A lot happened in this trip, all great memories, and I couldn't have asked for anything better. Jae's perspective: Katrina thinks our first date is the first time we went out together alone, but I don't count this as our first date. I actually asked out Katrina to dinner while we were still in Australia for SALT&LIGHT. She asked if she could bring her sister along and I told her, "sure!" Yes, we had a third wheel with us, but we had a really good time. I took her out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant. We walked around downtown Cairns after dinner to find gift shops. Our last stop was finding an ice-cream shop. I didn't want to have the girls out so late, but I could tell Katrina wanted to be out with me a little longer before it started to rain a bit harder that night. We went back to hotel lobby and played cards while we waited for everyone to return from their dinner plans. In hindsight, our official "first date" would be the day after I picked up Katrina from the airport in Orlando. The following morning, we went to a mall to shop and enjoyed the nuances of dating in person. Later that evening, we went to an Aespa (kpop) concert that I had originally planned to go with a different friend. He bailed on me, but God knew what He was doing. I had bought these tickets prior to SALT&LIGHT (before I knew Katrina) and Katrina's youngest sister had a cheerleading event in Orlando that same weekend as the concert. The stars aligned and God made a way for us to meet that February. You really can't write that up. The entire weekend was a first for us, but the first of many, many fun trips and memories. I met her parents, her little sister, and got to be physically present with her for the first time after SALT&LIGHT. Praise God!

Katrina's perspective: Jae and I have the same birthday week (3 days apart) and I flew down to visit him. I had a good feeling this was it; but wasn't sure. He did drop a few hints. For example, before visiting, Jae offered to pay for a luggage so that I could pack as many dresses as I wanted. He also suggested that I get my nails done too. Kudos to him for doing that. The morning of the proposal, Jae carefully and mindfully helped me pick out a dress. He gave me lots of time to do my hair and makeup, didn't rush me even though we started to run a little late for church. After church, we had plans to do a picnic. Back at Jae's house, we began to pack the food we had prepped, however, he kept sneaking away whenever he got a phone call. Very sus.. he never hides from me. And I could tell how perfect he wanted this picnic to be because we made an extra trip to the store to buy croissants since we accidentally left it at his sister's house. Arriving at the park, we walked up a hill. At a distance, I spotted his family near the overlook. As we walked closer to the overlook, there was a beautiful picnic blanket set up with flowers and pillows underneath a tree. As we approached the picnic blanket Jae said, "I think you know where this is going..." I interrupted "Yes" Jae said "Wait I didn't even ask yet" He got down on one knee and asked and I said "Yes" Jae then told me to turn around, and little did I know, my mom and two sisters came out of nowhere to congratulate us. Our proposal was a beautiful moment that I will never forget, surrounded by loved ones. I can't wait for the day we say, "I do". Jae's perspective: The proposal came quickly, but took some time for me to prepare. To be honest, I knew she would be my wife after the first 3 months of dating and so I prepared for it. We started dating officially in February and by May, I had already started planning out what our proposal would look like. I was researching rings and we lowkey went ring shopping in May when she had come to visit. From there, I had to plan accordingly since we didn't plan to meet to often over the year. Our parents met in June for the HKM Annual conference. Her family invited me to join them in August for their family beach trip. And so, the planning began. I originally wanted to propose to Katrina at the beach in August, but I wanted to ask her father for his blessing to marry her first. So I did that in August on our beach trip. Our next meeting was in Georgia in September-October for our birthdays. We share the same birthday week and had planned this earlier in the year. In July, I had bought the ring and started planning with my sister and Katrina's mom. When September came around, the plan was to do it as a picnic date at the top of a hill at a park after church on Sunday. Praise God for the good weather and lack of busyness. My loving family prepared the space for us (shoutout Sunshine for holding it down) and it was set. Katrina's mom and sisters planned to surprise Katrina for the proposal and we had to keep this all a secret from her. The moment comes when we arrive at the park, walk up the hill in our church clothes with a picnic basket full of food and proceed to our location. We arrive and my family was taking videos and photos of us. I would hoped by now, Katrina would know what this was. Before I could even get down on one knee, she was already saying "yes". Next thing you know, her sisters and mom jump out at her and surprise her! Thank God she said, "yes!" We celebrated with our families, pictures, and our homemade tuna salad croissant sandwiches. See you at the altar, my bride-to-be!

Our time long distance dating from GA to WI has been very challenging but rewarding at the same time. Not being physically present can take a toll on the relationship but through lots of facetiming, late night/early morning phone calls, and almost once a month visits, really helped us to communicate and grow with one another. We thank God for shaping us to be the people we are today, for allowing us to meet each other and for blessing us to live life together.