Colton and Marian met at church in April 2017. They were both interested in each other right away, They had so much in common, and they felt a true connection. In June 2017, Marian wrote a note in her phone saying that she thought Colton might be the man she would marry. Colton also knew pretty quick that something big was going to happen. However, Colton wanted to focus on his faith and become an Orthodox Christian before asking Marian out on a date. As a result, Marian was annoyed because Colton was taking his sweet time and she didn't understand why. Colton was baptized in August, and finally, in September 2017, Colton asked Marian for the chance to officially get to know her better. That's how it all began!

Marian was setting up her classroom on the morning of August 24th, 2018 when Colton called from work and told her that he was taking her to dinner that night and that he wanted her to wear the red dress that he had bought her in California. That same morning, Colton had been down at Salmon Beach with his friend Phil and Marian's brother Theo scouting out a place to hide a special message in a bottle. Before going out to dinner, Marian and Colton decided to meet up at the gym to work out. Marian suggested they warm up on the stair master, not knowing that Colton had already gone up and down almost 300 stairs going to and from Salmon Beach. He seemed a little more tired than usual, but he agreed to do stair master nonetheless (what a champ). After working out, they changed, and Colton brought Marian to their favorite restaurant, the Matador in downtown Tacoma. From there, they went and had drinks at their favorite tiki bar across the street. Afterwards, Colton suggested that they go on a walk down at Salmon Beach. This is a special location for them both, as this was the first place that Colton told Marian that he loved her. Colton lead her down the stairs, helped her find the message in the bottle, got down on one knee, and asked her to marry him! She said yes. :)