According to Joey, we "met" at college graduation, but in reality he noticed me and I was oblivious. As fate would have it, we walked side by side next to each other at graduation before we officially met. A week later, I received a friend request on Facebook from "Joey Ace Productions" thinking "OMG a production company is interested in hiring me!" I later found out it was just some random guy who commented "Nice dress," on a picture of me from my graduation party. My first thought was he's either gay or flirting with me. Eventually, he gathered up the courage to privately message me and yes there may have been some flirting, but me being so oblivious thought he just wanted to be friends. Then on June 8, 2018 he asked me to hang out and the original plan was to go to Applebee's for appetizers, but the plan quickly changed when I stuffed my face out to dinner with my family. So we decided to go to Eggers in Richmond town for ice cream instead. Apparently, I made him wait an hour as I was getting ready, and by the time I got there, his phone was dead so I didn't know how I was going to find him. After walking up and down Richmond town, we finally spotted each other and how does he greet me for the first time? He pets me! Yes that's right, because I'm so short he pets me! From there we went to order our ice cream and I knew he was a keeper from day one because he ordered me a large ice cream even though I insisted a small was fine. After finishing our ice cream, we walked around Richmond town holding hands, then we decided to take this date to the boardwalk. We walked, talked and laughed as if we had known each other forever. I couldn't believe how comfortable I felt with him, especially since I don't open up to people easily. I'm not one to kiss and tell, but yes we did kiss on the first date, and it was a magical moment. I could hear the fireworks going off in my head! The night soon came to an end even though I didn't want it to, and I couldn't stop thinking about him until I saw him again two days later. It wasn't until the third date that we made it official. On June 13, 2018, Joey asked me to be his girlfriend and of course I said yes. From that moment on we became inseparable and hung out together any chance we got. I think we both already knew this was something special early on. Three weeks into our relationship on a summer day in his parents' backyard with me sitting on his lap, he whispered those three words so quietly and so delicately thinking I didn't hear. Without hesitation, I said "I love you too." From that point on we both knew we had found each other's soulmate.

On June 13, 2023, Joey surprised me with a vacation to our favorite place, Atlantic City for our 5 year anniversary. We spent the day at the beach getting our tan on. After we left the beach, Joey told me he bought a selfie stick for us to have a cute little photo-shoot on the beach, or so I thought. When we got to the beach all dressed up, we walked all the way down by the water and he gave me my anniversary gift, a customized photo book of our love story. On the last page was a photo of us when he gave me my promise ring and a note we left on the hotel tip envelope which we signed as Mr. and Mrs. Mannarino with the caption, "Let's make this a forever thing." Next thing I know, he's standing there holding up a blanket, which was hard to read because it was so windy, but eventually I was able to make out what it said which was "Kayla, will you marry me?" I started crying as I said yes immediately while he was on one knee holding up the ring. He then told me this was my Nana's ring, which made me cry even more! After the proposal, I turned around as Joey was waving to someone and then quickly realized he hired a photographer to capture this memorable moment. The surprises were not over yet! After we took some engagement photos on the beach, we headed back to our room which was decorated with rose petals, tea light candles and a K, heart, and J light up signs on the bed. He even got us sashes to wear that said "future husband", "future wifey" and "I said yes!" Later that night we went out to a fancy Italian restaurant called Carmine's and received lots of congratulations from people around us. It couldn't have been a more perfect day.