Our story is a bit unique. We met on Tinder in Atlanta in 2015 (Marco says that I was the only person he ever met from Tinder, giving him a 100% success rate), and little did I know that this simple swipe to the right would change my life forever. We started dating that summer, and one year later, Marco moved abroad for the first time. Since then, we have lived in three different countries and nine different cities, but rarely in the same city at the same time. Still, we made it work because we knew we had something special. We are each other’s biggest supporters and constants in a world that is always changing.

One of our favorite traditions is visiting Chattanooga, which is where we took our first vacation together. It is a place where we can escape the world and just be together. Eight years later (on March 13, to be exact), during our most recent trip there, Marco finally got on one knee and popped the question. The answer was an easy “YES!!” for me, especially considering we were practically done planning our wedding at this point. This is how sure we were that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together.

Marco and I have been playing a multi-year game of long-distance “tag”. When he moved to Korea, I moved to New York, both to begin our Master's. After Korea, he moved to New York, but by this time I was already in DC. Marco later moved to California for work as I was beginning to plan the next chapter of my life, my PhD. Ironically, during the social-distancing era of the pandemic, Marco and I had a brief time where we were able to be together, first in Atlanta and then in Chicago. This is, of course, until 2022, when Marco moved to Tokyo for his PhD.

As you can see, our story has been (and will continue to be) full of twists and turns, but we know that we have a bond that can withstand anything. It has been a journey of love, understanding, patience, hours-long video calls, and a lot of airplane tickets. We have shared countless memories through the years, and we look forward to creating even more together as we start our life as a married couple.

The last eight years has been anything but conventional for us. However, it seems as if our lives are beginning to converge, starting with our wedding and then, with us living in the same place at the same time after we both graduate with our PhDs in 2025 (at least this is the plan!). As we prepare for our wedding, we cannot help but feel blessed to have found each other and have the love and support of our amazing family and friends. We are so excited to embark on this next chapter of our lives together, starting with the biggest celebration of our love on September 30^th, 2023, surrounded by ALL OF YOU!