In film and television, a meet cute is a scene in which the two people who will form a future romantic couple meet for the first time, typically under unusual, humorous, or cute circumstances. Our story has all three. Both of us grew up in Florida, Collin in Jacksonville and Amanda in Jupiter, spending our time in the sunshine. We both grew up playing sports - Collin spending hours at the skate park and Amanda on the soccer fields - with friends who have turned into family. Amanda admittedly always had a crush on the blonde surfer type and jokes that she would have had the world’s largest crush on Collin if they had met as kids. We both attended the University of Florida (can I get a “Go Gators”) and participated in Greek Life. Although sharing several mutual friends and likely being at a few of the same parties, we never met at school. Our relationship has had so many coincidental opportunities to meet. We truly feel that fate, and our friends, brought us together at the right time - serving as the perfect Meet Cute to start the rest of our lives.

After graduation, Collin moved to California and Amanda to New York City a few short years later. In NYC, Amanda became close friends with Aaron Clossey + Jarrod Fox who were in Collin’s fraternity in undergrad. When given the opportunity to move to California with work, Amanda took the leap and moved to Los Angeles in February 2017. A few months passed by until Amanda had a wedding to attend to celebrate Poly Duncan, a sorority sister from UF (which number was this? 15 at that point?) in Cincinnati, OH. Poly was marrying David, Collin’s fraternity brother. Poly had introduced the two via text message a few weeks prior to the wedding, but they hadn’t yet met.

Upon landing in Cincinnati, Amanda couldn’t check into her hotel room yet so she spent the morning with Jarrod, her friend from NYC, who happened to be sharing a room with Collin. Amanda claims that upon entering the hotel room, it smelled of stale beer and pizza as the boys had hosted the after party in their room the night before.

Amanda + Collin met the day of Poly + David Duncan’s wedding and had a blast that weekend. They ended up being on the same flight back to LAX, on which Amanda slept the entire time, and started dating upon their return back home.

Amanda was heading to Asheville, NC for a friend’s bachelorette party and to spend Thanksgiving with Beth + Pete in Black Mountain. Collin had a surprise up his sleeve. While taking a walk with the dogs, Amanda, Beth, and Pete crossed a small stream. Beth encouraged Amanda to walk ahead of them in an effort to get the dogs to hurry up. Worried about the “people ahead on the trail” Amanda was hesitant to give much lead room. However, upon closer look, she realized it was someone she knew … I hope I will never forget how I felt in that moment. My heart skipped a beat (or five), but I knew in that moment exactly what Collin had come for. I hurried ahead to hug him, where he proceeded to get down on one knee and asked if I would marry him. To which, I screamed “OF COURSE!” 🤍