Due to COVID-19 we will be implementing social distancing, mask wearing, and sanitization throughout the wedding

In the Fall of 2007, our Freshman year in high school, we would meet and start what would grow into an amazing relationship. Our friendship was almost effortless. Looking back at old instant messages the conversations were always light and the flirtation was cringe worthy but hey, we were young. Over the next few years we would become closer. Although we may have never dated in high school, the jokes, talks, a couple of stolen kisses and late night walks would plant the seeds of a relationship yet to come. Over the next few years together we went our separate ways and between the two of us have lived on 3 different continents and 6 different countries, but alas never the same one. It seemed we were destined to have countries, oceans, and countless miles between us.

Several years after meeting (10 years and 5 months to be exact), after a couple of dates and a long conversation about how bad long distance relationships were, we realized we would never have a "good timing", and decided take a swing at dating. Over the next year, her living in Shanghai and myself on a tiny island of the Azores, we spent endless hours on the phone, visited 3 Disney parks, explored 3 countries, drank copious amounts of wine, ate tons of delicious food, and fell more deeply in love than either of us could have imagined. After spending a night laying in a hammock watching a meteor shower, talking, and just being together I knew then that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. She always talked about a farm that her family has owned since the 1700s. It was always her favorite place to be and knowing how much she loved it, an idea started to take shape. Leaving Portugal I would have 30 days back home to spend with her before having to leave again. After asking for her parents blessing and enlisting the help of her best friend Kelsea to find a ring, everything was coming together. We wanted a weekend away from everything just the two of us while I was home, so when she suggested we go to the farm I just thought she was setting this up perfectly. After arriving she shows me around. Along the tour is a swing hung from an old tree in the yard, her favorite place at the farm. As I pushed her in the swing she teased saying "oh you're just waiting for Valentine's Day to break up with me." To which I replied "Well if that were true then this would be awkward." She turns in the swing still swinging, to see me down on one knee with a ring box open in my hand. I'd say she gracefully got off the swing but even without the shock anyone who knows her would have a hard time believing that. She stumbles out of the swing almost falling but not quite and looks on with shock as I nervously tell her how much I love her and ask if she would marry me.