Attracted by the irresistible beauty of Van, Derrick took a shot and messaged her on September 15, 2019. "Did you fold that paper airplane yourself?"—he joked about the tattoo on her wrist. Meanwhile, Van was too hypnotized by the photo on his profile of him holding a puppy that she later found out was not even his.

On the first date, they decided to meet up at the rock climbing gym—so authentic. Then once, on a winter night while Van was away, as an attempt to swoon her over, Derrick went to her place and cleaned the snow off of her car without her knowing. Soon after, Van offered to drive Derrick to the airport to show him how caring and giving she can be.

Whatever Derrick was doing worked! Van was impressed and started dropping hints that she wanted to take their relationship to the next level. Finally, on November 3, 2019, at the top of Monadnock mountain in NH, Derrick asked Van to be his girlfriend and they hard launched each other on social media.

Fast forward to 4 years later, Derrick finally pulled one of the biggest stunts he's ever done—and he's done many surprise Christmas scavenger hunts—to propose to Van during an eclipse at Crater Lake National Park on October 14, 2023. Because you know ... the "ring of fire."

After many adventures together, here they are getting married on July 19, 2025 and celebrating with their closest friends and family in Washington.

We know a lot of you are out of state, so we're just grateful that you would fly across the country to be with us. —Van & Derrick—