We met on Hinge, at a moment when I was just about ready to delete the app for good. After one too many questionable messages, I put my phone down and focused on something far more joyful: decorating my home for Christmas. Later that night, I picked my phone back up to officially delete the app… and there he was. His face appeared on my screen and I thought, Okay, he’s really cute. Then I read his profile and learned he was a firefighter in Yonkers. Naturally, my next thought was, “Firefighter? That’s hot.” But what truly made me pause was his message: “I used to dig for fossils with my aunt at Muscoot Farms.” At the time, I was going to school for anthropology, and something about that felt like more than coincidence. So I wrote him back. One date quickly turned into many, and before we knew it, we were inseparable. Our life together quickly filled with laughter, long conversations (on Frank’s part), and adventures, especially on the water. Boat days became some of our favorites, and somewhere along the way, Cape Cod wove itself into our story, becoming a place that felt like home. So of course, Cape Cod is where he proposed. He had planned a beautiful surprise… and I nearly ruined it by taking an absurd amount of time to get ready. I was brushing my teeth, fixing my hair, doing everything except realizing that he was pacing nearby, trying to look casual while internally panicking with a ring in his tackle bag (of all places). By the time I finally emerged, he was more than ready, and somehow still pulled off the surprise perfectly. What began as a message I almost never read has become a partnership rooted in patience, laughter, and choosing each other every day. Marriage, for us, means continuing the adventure, laughing often, loving deeply, and knowing that wherever we are, we are home. And we can’t wait to celebrate that love with you.