Our story started in May of 2019 at the wedding of Jessica and Garrett Faber. Ryan was his brother's best man and Stacy was a bridesmaid. When Ryan gave his best man speech Stacy realized he wasn't just this quiet guy who had kept to himself all weekend, but he had a great sense of humor! With the help of some determined party guests trying to play matchmaker and a little liquid courage, these two finally got a chance to chat and hit it off! Stacy left the wedding afterparty in her typical fashion, the "Irish goodbye". Ryan was devastated that he didn't get a chance to ask for her phone number. His cousin Jerri gave him the idea to go on Jessica's Instagram to find Stacy and slide into her DMs. It took three dates before Ryan finally got her phone number. At the time Ryan was staying with his parents for a few weeks in Littlestown, PA before he was scheduled to get back on a Military Sealift Command ship. Ryan would drive over an hour down to Rockville, MD to visit Stacy as much as he could before his scheduled departure. Ryan's departure got delayed and the two were able to spend the summer falling in love. Ryan lucked out and was able to get on a ship off the coast of San Diego, the best case scenario. For the next 11 months, the couple endured a long-distance relationship, only being able to message via FB messenger when Ryan was working. Lucky for Stacy this was usually 3AM to 7AM East Coast time. Stacy made two short trips out to San Diego to visit Ryan when he had a short weekend off and Ryan got two weeks off to visit in March of 2020 before the world shutdown. The couple built a stronger bond during the year apart. When Ryan returned in July of 2020 the two moved into an apartment in the middle of a pandemic. The two went from a long-distance relationship to spending 24/7 together, working remotely in their little apartment. Since they didn't get sick of being together 24/7 the last two years, they felt it was time to tie the knot!

Ryan asked Stacy to be his girlfriend at the beach in June of 2019. Stacy beat him to the punch and said I love you first at the beach in August of 2019. It was only fitting that Ryan would propose at the beach where they had all of their other relationship milestones. The plan was to come down to Bethany beach to help get Stacy's parents' beach house ready for the rental season. Sorry Mom and Dad, not much work was completed during the trip. Ryan looped the Maid of Honor, Milan into the plan to help him capture the moment and to get Bodhi all set up. Milan pretended that she left the beach to go back home to meet family while Stacy and Ryan got dressed up to go to their favorite restaurant Fin's Ale House to get the famous seafood bake. While at the restaurant Ryan pretended that he got a text from his coworker that one of their Subcom ships was going by the coast of Bethany and he wanted to go to the beach after dinner to see if they could get a picture of it. Meanwhile, Milan snuck back into the beach house and got Bodhi all ready for the surprise. Ryan took Stacy straight to the beach, and he barely parked the car in the parking spot before racing to the beach because he wanted to see the ship before it passed by. They took a few pictures of a fake ship out by the ocean and then all of a sudden Bodhi was running up to them on the beach in a white bandanna. Stacy was all confused about how the dog got loose on the beach. Ryan asked Stacy to read the bandana which said "Will you marry my dad?" and with that Ryan got down on one knee and asked Stacy "Will you marry me?" she said "Yes!" and Milan was there to capture the moment.