We met at Fort Leonard Wood during Air Force technical school in May of 2021. Although, Rich swears it was love at first site during basic training (in San Antonio, TX) when we were in each other's brother/sister flight. Like most couples, we fell in love the typical way: established nightly curfews, COVID-era confinement, zero privacy, and getting yelled at by Military Training Leaders. In fact, the first time we ever "hung out," we were assigned to be a married couple to assist Military Police for a domestic abuse exercise!

In March of 2024, Rich popped the question on a private sunset cruise in the waters of Key West, Florida. Amanda said yes!

Rich and Amanda were both set to deploy overseas in October of 2024; Rich was to go to Africa and Amanda to the Middle East. Because we were already engaged when we found this out, we chose to say 'I do,' on our original anniversary of June 19th, so we could take the promise of forever with us on our separate deployments. But then Rich's deployment got cancelled due to a military coup and an American withdrawal in Niger...but you know what didn't get cancelled? Our loveeeeee (we live in Wisconsin - we love it cheesy). Now, we want to get married in front of our loved ones (that's you!) and celebrate like there's no tomorrow.