We're getting married!

After a handful of years visiting my Uncle Jesse in Washington, I decided to make my move from NW Iowa Labor Day weekend of 2016. Fast forward to Thanksgiving a few months later, I had a very festive Black Friday with some of my family favorites, Katelyn and Maddy. While I thought the evening was over, Maddy’s best friend Mel reached out to us asking if we wanted to go out to Half Pint on 6th Ave.... a boy and his 2 other friends were going to meet us there. I eagerly said yes, and off Mel and I went. What I was not expecting was that one of those guy friends was going to be titled My Biggest Crush of All Time for years to come. Spoiler, that title changed to boyfriend and now to fiancé. Steven and I locked eyes and smiles upon meeting and I was already smitten, only to find out he had just moved back to Washington after spending some time living in Sioux Falls, SD. (For people who do not know, that is right by where I grew up and is where all our shopping and going out to restaurants was done.) Once I learned that, I was sold on top of how handsome, charming, and just “my type” he was. I ended the night journaling “I met this guy Steven Palin....” Jump through 6 years of me telling my friends all about him, having random run ins with each other, me never sending the “I know we’re friends, but I think I have a crush on you” text in 2018 that is still a draft in my notes, and Steven never forgetting to text me a “Happy Birthday!”, our lives FINALLY synced together in the Fall of 2022. Meeting up for a 3-hour coffee catch up in October, with Steven saying “Ya, I think I need to be single for 5 years” and me knowing well that that was not going to happen, we had a long hug goodbye, and my 6 years of crushing was about to change. With some friends and concert hangs through November, we had our official first date on Black Friday of 2022, coincidence? I think not. 2023 was spent having lots of dates, getting to know each other more and learning why timing had been so important for both of us. In March, Steven made it official by asking me to be his girlfriend while we sat at the same spot at Half Pint, where we once first met. I of course said yes and quickly ran to the bathroom to text my friends. 2023-2024 was an adventure of falling more in love plus setting up home in our condo in West Seattle and learning how fun it is to be able to spend every day with your best friend. Jump to June 2024. It was a sunny PNW day where we made the plan to do a day trip to my favorite place, Ruby Beach. Once there, we set up our blanket and Steven started saying his sweet things to me as he usually does, but when it hit the time where he usually stopped talking, he kept saying more things and I blacked out and just knew omg this is happening. Steven proposed and I said Yes, I Do, Of Course, etc. I am so lucky to know love at first sight and so grateful to spend my life growing and being cared for by My Biggest Crush of All Time.

Our story was years in the making, from the first night I met Whitley in a Tacoma bar in 2016 until our real “first date” exactly six years later, and now finally I’m on my way to marrying my best friend. One night, I was at a friend's house on a Friday night right after Thanksgiving, one of whom was seeing a girl, who also happened to be hanging with her friends that same night. He wanted to get together with her and needed us to join, so the three of us left for the Half Pint. I remember feeling a mix of eager and anxious. When we showed up, I noticed Whitley immediately. She noticed me too, and suddenly everything else went blurry and out of focus. That was it, I was already drawn to her. I remember my internal monologue was “wow she’s so pretty, I like her eyes, she has dimples, I like her curly hair. Wow, she’s tall!” I had never hit it off so well with someone like this before. We spent the night getting to know each other bouncing between the booth, bar, and dance floor. I learned she’s from Northwest Iowa, which was a wild synchronicity, since I had previously spent a year and a half nearby in Sioux Falls, SD. From the very beginning, I noticed something deeper about her, something I couldn’t yet put into words at that time. It was her warmth, her openness, her approach to her life, the cute way she says “nuh-uh,” but in hindsight, it all added up to the knowledge that I had found the person I’m meant to spend the rest of my life with. Years had gone by. I had moved to Seattle, caught up in music and the creative scene, meanwhile often wondering what Whitley was up to or how she was doing. We did keep the connection over the years. Whenever I did see her during this stretch, I would feel the same tension that drew me to her. Life finally aligned for us in the fall of 2022, when we reconnected on a coffee date. I had such a good time with her, we ended up talking for over 3 hours and didn’t even notice. We finally got to be together for real. I cemented something that I already knew; that I had fallen in love with Whitley and wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. Over the next year, we ended up moving in together in West Seattle, and have had so much fun setting up our house and growing together. I’m becoming the healthiest version of myself with Whitley, and I love being the support that she needs in a partner. In June 2024, I asked her to marry me at Ruby Beach, which is one of her favorite places, and now I’m so excited to see where life will take us, and I’m also excited to share our relationship with all our friends and family.