Our story began on February 8, 2022, when Will sent me a message on the infamous online dating app - Hinge. At first, I didn't respond to the message, even though Hinge posted a big banner on my app that said "Most Compatible: Ali & Will, we think you two should meet." If you are unfamiliar with the disaster of online dating, women tend to get hundreds of messages, and men's matches (according to Will, "are few and far between"). I continued to periodically look at Will's message and debated answering. As part of his message, he commented on a picture of me and my friend (and Matron of Honor) Deandra, claiming to know her. I thought this was weird since I know all of her people. When I brought this to Deandra's attention she said, "I know him! I used to work with him! Wait, he's single? He never gave the impression he was single. If he's single you should definitely go out with him, he's so nice and well-liked at work. He's handsome, and I think you both like outdoorsy stuff." With the nudge from Deandra, I answered Will's message 6 days later on Valentine's Day (a whole nother story!) and the conversation took off. Fast forward to a few weeks later, we had our first date planned. About a week before the date, I called Will and mentioned that the day we were supposed to go dinner was my niece's prom and I promised I would see her before her prom. According to Will he was thinking: "here we go again, another match bailing at the last minute." But to his disbelief, instead, I asked him if he wanted to pick me up and go over to my sister-in-law's house to see my niece before we went to dinner. When we showed up, Will had no idea he was getting ready to meet a large majority of my family on our first date. Will was asked, "How long have you and Ali been dating?" Will looked at his watch and replied "for about 27 minutes." "We met in person 27 minutes ago." Our chemistry was evident already and Will was jumping in family photos (see the first picture of our online gallery). A family friend said to us that day, "I have a good feeling, I think you two will get married." Will says he knew in that moment that he finally met someone that had the same family values as him and couldn't be more excited. We went to dinner at Giumarello's and the conversation was more than surface level. Our conversation on our first date went straight to values, kids, and past traumas. We spent the entire night talking and realized how much we had in common. A month later, we were officially together and 3 years after that we were engaged. In our 3.5 years together, we have seen countless national parks, the Northern lights, Europe at Christmas time, Disney (more times than Will would like to remember), and many other places. Our relationship has been nothing short of an adventure. We are so excited for this next chapter and to see what new adventures will come.