Our story is the same as any other modern romance - we swiped right on each other. His midwestern origins and warmth caught her attention. She had pretty eyes, a nice smile, and for some reason found him funny, so he knew he had to lock this down. It was about thirty minutes into a poorly planned first date when we started to realize our shared values, senses of humor, and affection for one another. After another three hours of an amazing date that we didn't want to end, we already knew that this was something special.

We moved in together in January 2020, excited for our new shared life together. Sharing a 500 square foot apartment in DC sounded doable as a short term solution while we looked to transition from Tony's bachelor pad, but little did we know that trouble was coming. When the world shut down and the space got even smaller, we knew this was not a sustainable sheltering location. By the beginning of April, we scooped up the dog and took a quarantine detour to an unexpected home in Orange Beach, AL. For many it was a period of asking ourselves, "How much time do we really enjoy spending with our loved ones?" As it turns out, we found out that we enjoyed it quite a bit. There was anxiety baking, some short tempers, and a lot of issues with the internet, but if that six months proved anything, it's that we are better off facing it together than we ever could be apart.

After leaving Orange Beach, we were once again on the road looking for a permanent place to live. Tony had the perfect plan to propose on the beach at sunset, but Hurricane Sally had other ideas. The ring had been living in his travel golf bag after being passed through Chicago, North Dakota, Buford, GA, and finally Alabama. Unwilling to let natural disasters deter him, he made a tee time for Chateau Elan and took Kathryn along for 18 holes. In a comedy of errors, the round took five hours and our fellow golfers were not being subtle about Tony's plans. He forgot the speech he had planned, and he called Kathryn mistakenly by her middle name. But when Tony got on one knee at the empty first tee box, Kathryn knew the words didn't matter, she knew he was saying "I love you and I want you to be with me forever". She had already said yes a long time ago and couldn't wait to be his wife.