Rene and Jess are getting married!

Ten years ago, I (Rene) was in Texas trying to figure out why I didn’t really care about the men who were interested in me, and Jess was in New Hampshire surviving the last years of her substance abuse. On any other timeline, or if our lives had taken any different turns, different existential crises, different hurts and healing, different clicks of buttons, or a different dating app (Facebook Dating? What??), I wouldn’t be the embarrassingly emotional sap I am today, right now, sitting here writing about the love of my life. (I’m still a cut-throat badass, though. Don’t try me.) The meeting was simple. I had a momentary Menty-B and thought I might take a job in Maine. Being from such a huge and diverse city like Houston and seeing how much smaller the cities in Maine were, I decided I should check out the dating scene and make sure there were other lesbians my age in the area. I tried out Facebook Dating and set my location to New England. It turns out, lesbians do exist in New England, but Jess would quickly try to convince me she was the only one and my only option. I swiped right on the cute blonde in a baseball cap with a portrait of a goddess tattooed on her ripped upper arm. She messaged me. Something about how we were going to be the makings of a progressive hallmark movie. She charmed me instantly and somehow knew from my profile alone that we would end up together. She was right. We never stopped talking. A few months later, Jess moved to Texas (oops) and a couple months after that, I had a ring on my finger. But what’s significant isn’t the way the stars and Facebook algorithms aligned to start a conversation between us. The significance of this partnership is that it exists at all. For most of my life, I didn’t understand that loving a woman was an option for me, or that I was even capable of this depth of love and contentment. There was a possible world in which I never figured it out and never got to experience this kind of happiness. And for Jess, there was a long period of time where her friends and family didn’t know if they would ever see her again. Jess didn’t even think she would make it to 30, much less make it to her wedding. But she beat unbelievable odds and was able to find peace, and love herself, and allow herself to be loved, so we can now revel in this sickeningly blissful love story for the rest of our lives. Her survival and success and her profoundly deep heart make my chest fill with more joy than I know how to put into words. I’m so lucky that she made it here and that I’m the one who gets to love and be loved by her. We’re two healing homebodies. And our confused and tormented pasts can rest knowing we found the safest and most perfect home in each other. So, the fact that this web page detailing our future marriage exists is pretty damn special to us, and I hope you, too, can find some hope and joy in our story. And now that I’ve outed myself as the world’s sappiest partner, excuse me while I remind you that I’m still also a stoic baddie and if you don’t come to this wedding I’ll never forgive you. (But we also love you and can’t wait to see you there 🥰 ♥️ UGH IS THIS WHO I AM NOW??) Love, Rene