Like any good story, we started out with a funny tale. We met online by “meet me” however our initial interactions was actually initiated by Lori’s little sister Brittany. While out shopping she noticed Lori’s phone going off and decided she herself wouldn’t do anything or “get out there” so she started messaging this guy named Dereck. When Lori came out of the dressing room Brittany basically told her that she had a date set up that night to meet outside of Dixie roadhouse.Lori naturally panicked as she didn’t want to get murdered by some random guy but somehow Brittany managed to get her to “YOLO”. Once we met we had too much in alignment and coincidences that it was undeniable that we would ever be apart moving forward. We’ve been together since 2/28/2016. Dereck proposed on 1/29/2023 (also his birthday) at Theater of the Sea. Lori went behind his back to surprise him with a Birthday Buoy and Dereck went behind her back trying to coordinate a proposal.. those poor Dolphin trainers were probably panicking behind the scenes trying to coordinate this. In the end, we were brought to a private lagoon area where we met with Julie the dolphin and dereck went into the water where he was surprised with his birthday buoy. After that presentation the trainer offered for Lori to come into the lagoon as well for an extra “something something”. Julie brought the buoy over with a “Will you Marry Me” written on it and Dereck was in the background on one knee ❤️