The romantic tale of our relationship begins like a lot of other magical pieces of fantasy and folklore... a Hinge (dating app) notification. I was folding laundry in my apartment on March 26, 2024, probably listening to a sports podcast or something else to fill my night, when I got a notification from Hinge, an app I’d essentially given up on. The notification said “Hannah gave you a like!” *A like!* You have to understand that this didn’t happen often to me, so I immediately paused whatever I was doing and sat down as I opened the app. What did I see? Well, you know Hannah: she’s a cutie! She had nice answers to the prompts, “Christian" in her bio, and that sweet face, and she was interested in ME! She’d replied to one of my silly prompts about liking to hear the “tea” (I’m a journalist to my core, oops), and we sprang into a conversation from there, small-talking about the basics and getting a read on each other. The next day, we chatted for a lot of the day, and then did the same the next day. And the next day, we exchanged our numbers, and we planned a first date of walking on a paved nature trail in town. Due to that weekend being Easter, we both had an opening on Easter Monday… which fell on April 1 that year. Yes, April Fools Day. Some people would call that a bad omen, but we didn’t care. We did tell lots of jokes (mostly me) as we walked, and we had a first date that went as well as a first date can go. Near the end, Hannah asked me what our second date should be. A second date??? Clearly she was interested, and I definitely was too! We went on several more dates — including a Liberty baseball game, a day trip to Charlottesville, and other cute things — and we talked every day in some way. Two weeks after our first date, we had a picnic up at the top of Liberty Mountain at the medical school, with a pretty view of campus and the mountains on the horizon. There, we decided we wanted to be exclusive (not that either of us was seeing anyone else), and I awkwardly but sincerely asked her if she’d be my first-ever girlfriend. She said yes! (Keep this in mind for later…) For the sake of time, I’ll go “big picture” from here. We’ve basically been a dynamic duo from the beginning; a team of two hearts, minds, and souls that fit well together and have put in the hard work to grow and build up one another. We’ve had countless grocery outings, coffee runs, movie nights, day trips, Chili’s Triple Dippers, and walks in nature. We’ve worshipped and prayed together, spurring each other on in our faith, and it was when we put in the extra effort to seek God’s leading in our relationship that we really grew closer. I could embarrass Hannah here and tell you how proud I am of her, she could say the same about me. On October 4, 2025, I brought Hannah back up to that picnic spot at the medical school where I’d asked her to be my girlfriend. It had long since become one of our favorite places. After some trickery that she at least partially saw through, I pulled out a ring and asked her to be my wife, my partner, my buddy, and the other half of the dynamic duo that started in April 2024 and will continue forever. She said yes! Well, you knew that already. Our wedding is surely going to be a time of celebration and humble thankfulness to the Lord. Whether you can attend in person or not, we hope you can see and feel that spirit of joy, love, and gratitude that has guided us here. We can’t wait to see what the Lord does in and through us in the years to come!