It was a cold Wednesday night in Pembroke Pines (so like 70 degrees). The kind of weather that makes you want to snuggle up to your loved one next to a fireplace - or a jacuzzi. It was like a hallmark movie. Marc was waiting for his dad to pick him up from the youth group service (it was a weird time). As he waited, he was browsing twitter and saw a tweet from a popular girl he always saw at school a grade below him. Marc made the best decision he could've made at that time, and replied. Alexis wasn't so lucky, because she gave him the time of day. His twitter app conveniently "wasn't sending notifications for DMs" so he told Alexis to text him (so he could have her number). Then the two lovebirds spent the last 8-9 years (depending on when you're reading this) traveling the world together, learning how to love each other, becoming adults together, one of them found a passion for serving her community, the other started building LEGOs again, and finally moving to a new state together.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been over 8 years since Marc and I started dating. Every time I think about us meeting, I have to laugh. It’s just so silly and unbelievable that this is the story of how I met the love of my life. I was only 14 at the time and Marc was 15. Most people know that we met on Twitter, in short, I was not having a great day and Marc (being the sweet person that he always is) asked if I wanted to talk about my day. Just a few weeks later, he asked me to be his girlfriend in the Angry Birds section in Sears at Pembroke Lakes Mall. It’s an extraordinary thing to meet your soulmate at a young age. We’ve been blessed with years of carefree fun and travels, plenty of time to get to know one another, and listened to each other’s teenage hopes and dreams and helped one another achieve them as adults. Now we've moved out-of-state, started our careers, and are living the happiest life we could have dreamed of.

When you're together for 8 years, it's a bit difficult to hide your intentions. Alexis is one of the smartest people I know, so I knew that she had an idea, but I also knew that she didn't know when, how, or where. We had planned a trip to Italy, with two cities being possible proposal sites so it wouldn't be obvious. After Milan, we took a train at the crack of dawn over to Lake Como. As soon as the sun came up, and we saw the mountains, I knew that I would be on a knee in just a few days. June 6th was a beautiful day, the sun was bouncing off the lake, and upon arriving we began our mile-long hike which felt like the longest mile of my life. Upon arriving, the beautiful garden and sights across the water took our breath away. Alexis looked amazing in this blue dress, which is my favorite color for her to wear. I could see that she was smiling, even with her mask on, as if to tell me this would be the perfect place to propose. After exploring the grounds, we settled on a bench away from the people taking pictures of the view. Oddly enough, the bench had the words "Facta, Non-Verba" written on it - as big of a sign as I could get, right? I had bought a slim ring holder so it wouldn't be so visible in any of my pockets and waited until she was distracted to take it out to make it accessible. By chance, a stranger sitting on a bench in front of us asked to take a photo of us because they thought that we looked so nice sitting there. They probably noticed the sweat stain on my back that I was trying to hide and figured out what was going on. They took a photo for us and went on their way. After they left, Alexis and I locked eyes, I got down on a knee, and I asked her to marry me. It was the perfect moment in the perfect place on a perfect day with my perfect person.