Our Story
We met online, which feels very normal to say now, but somehow our version of it became unique from the start.
At the time, Paul was living in Vancouver, and I was living in Victoria, so before we ever became part of each other’s everyday lives, we were two people with an ocean between us. For months, our relationship existed through calls, FaceTime debates, setting boundaries, long conversations, and the kind of banter that made it feel like we had already known each other for years.
When we finally met in person, I thought Paul was incredibly attractive, interesting, and super funny. Paul says his first thought was that I was even ‘prettier in person’. He also remembers me being a little timid at first, mostly because I hid behind the door when he arrived. He thought I was closed off, but somehow still easy to talk to. He also thought I might have a bit of an attitude issue, which was very fair.
We laughed so much that first weekend. We stayed up until 4 a.m., watching shows, laughing, talking, and settling into the feeling as if we had already known each other for a long time.
That weekend, I made a joke to Paul and said, “We are really good friends.” Paul stopped the car in the middle of Bay Street and kissed me. After he left that weekend, I called one of my best friends and said, “I met my future husband.”
For over a year, we took the ferries between Vancouver and Victoria almost every weekend. For context, it’s about a 6-hour journey in total. We would spend as much time together as we could, and then do it all again the next weekend.
Eventually, we took our first ferry ride together. When I moved over!
We are so similar, yet have such different backgrounds. Paul grew up on the island. I grew up in the city. Paul is construction. I am computers. Paul is Canadian. I am American. We came from completely different worlds, but somehow fit together better than one would think.
Before our one-year anniversary, we got each other’s names tattooed in Santa Monica. It was probably not the most cautious decision in the world, but it felt completely natural to us. By then, we already knew that we had always been all-in.
The proposal happened in Vietnam, on a walk along the beach. Paul had secretly carried the ring through the entire trip, nervous about going through customs and airport security that someone would find it or ruin the surprise. But he pulled it off.
We are stepping into marriage feeling like we have already been each other’s person for years. We are best friends. We are home to each other. We are still the same people who stayed up until 4 a.m. laughing, who crossed the water every weekend, who got spontaneous tattoos in California, who learned each other’s worlds and decided to build one of our own together.
