Have you ever downloaded an app, posted your best pictures, crossed your fingers, and hoped you found the person you will spend the rest of your life with? We have. Our relationship started with a back-and-forth conversation on Bumble, the dating app. Within the first day of exchanging messages, we discussed a hypothetical scenario in which we had left our high-pressure jobs. We would open a zoo. We would feed orangutans, clean enclosures, and sell animal-shaped wax figurines instead of titrating medications and removing organs. Because of our mutual distaste for phone conversations, we would communicate strictly via walkie-talkie. Even before we formally met, it was clear that we were both searching for a partner who would be supportive, adventurous, authentic, and sufficiently weird.

After a thorough interrogation of mutual contacts, we were each convinced the other party was a real person. We planned our first date at FRIDA Southwest in the Paseo district. The July heat and pounding music are our most vivid memories from that night. Though the comically loud music drowned out the details of our small talk, the date allowed us to confirm our undeniable mutual attraction. A second date to a vintage, 1970s-themed bowling alley highlighted our equally competitive nature and a joint prowess for bowling. Our third date ended with a downtown Main Street kiss. The kind of kiss that makes your heart race, stars cascade across the backs of your closed eyelids, and your ears turn red just thinking about it. The kind of kiss that left one of us driving the wrong way down a one-way street. The kind of kiss that feels a lot like true love.

In our time together, we have laughed daily, eaten every sweet treat we have ever met, and taken more trips to the grocery store than we are willing to admit (so many that we call it “our spot”). At the root of our love story is a friendship unlike any other we have ever experienced. Our relationship has evolved from planning our next date to pondering if we will still playfully chase each other down the jet bridge when we are in our nineties. We are excited for the future–especially November 8th–and cannot wait to celebrate our big day with you.