It all started when two people swiped, right… Well, one of us accidentally swiped left first! Bumble was the only dating app that I had (shoutout to Mimi for helping me make my account!) and I barely got on it. On a random day in April 2021, I’m casually swiping through, until I stumble upon a picture of a man whose hair was a little bit overgrown, but had the best beard and smile. I was scrolling through his page seeing things I like (food, Marvel, etc.) until I accidentally swiped left! I frantically texted Mimi to see if there’s a way to reverse it, only to find out that there’s no undoing of my mistake. I groaned about it but quickly moved on lol Two months later, I happen to get back on Bumble to give it another chance, and guess who’s profile popped back up?! *Look at God!* I very slowly and carefully make sure that I swipe right on Marty‘s page. Trying to be as cool as possible, I ask him if the Falcon & the Winter Soldier series is worth the watch, he responds, and we’ve talked (and of course fell in love) every day since 😊

How we met…. It started with a swipe right and a Falcon and the Winter Soldier ice breaker. We began our journey on Bumble on June 7th, 2021. After a few weeks of great conversation, we decided to meet in person at Bodhi, a Thai restaurant at the end of Mass Ave for our first date. I remember three things from that night. The first thing was that I couldn’t believe I couldn’t get actual Thai food at a Thai restaurant because they were only doing appetizers that night. We had to get wings and spring rolls, but they were still good tho lol. The second was when our cars passed each other when we were both looking for parking - I thought about how beautiful Lauren’s smile is. She has a very welcoming smile. And finally, I was glad I went in for that kiss at the end of the night 😏

I knew for a long time that Lauren was the one, and she would be the one that I would marry. So when I finally picked out the ring (shoutout to Diamonds Direct) I had to figure out how to do it. The planning of the proposal was the hardest part because I wanted to pull off the perfect combination of Lauren being surprised, great pictures and getting all our friends/family in one location on NYE. I accomplished at least two of those things haha. Shocking to me, the proposal didn’t get even semi-spoiled until the night before… *Lauren’s point of view* It was the day before NYE and we had my best friend’s parents’/Grammy’s Christmas party. I had planned to get my nails done earlier in the day, but I was busy with chores and Netflix. I was about to go when I realized we would be late for the party if I went to get them done that night, so I planned to go the next morning upon opening. So I pulled back in, told Marty, and he lets me know that I need to go TODAY because we’re taking pics at 10am, not in the evening like I thought (pics for NYE, ya know?). It started to make more sense! 😏 So we get to the party, and go downstairs to say hey to Grammy. I go up to her and say hello, and she says “Hi! Oh and congratulations!”… “For what, grammy??” She stops herself, not even looking at me, and says “Ummmmm forrrr uhh making it out of Lake Tahoe safely?!” 😂 great save! Then my suspicion (and excitement) went up! …The plan was to take Lauren on a “photo shoot” for NYE at the White River State Park. I had my friend Ronnie take the photos and Mike do the sneak video when I was on one knee. I think I repeated what I was going to say in my head about 100x while we were doing the shoot. I honestly don’t remember much of it because I was so focused on what I was going to say. When we made it to the bridge, I told Lauren how I felt about her and that I wanted to take one more picture and BOOM…I was on one knee asking her if she wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. Besides the fact that it was chilly, everything went according to plan and here we are today!