Ean and I met on OkCupid in 2016 and I wouldn’t admit that for years.

His first message to me asked whether or not I’d rather be able to speak any language or travel anywhere in the world. I told him I’d love to travel because eventually I’d pick up those languages. We spoke via novel length messages for over a month before we had our first date to see Deadpool on Valentine’s Day. I drove home from St. Louis in a storm to meet him. It was the first and only time I ever drank a 5-hour energy.

The night was cold and he didn’t offer me his jacket because he “wasn’t wearing anything under it” which was wild to me. We spoke a little that day, but I’m shy as hell and he was tall. It doesn’t take much to intimidate me.

The first year was a roller coaster.

We experienced a family cancer diagnosis, a few deaths in my family, new jobs, new friends and in the first five months he invited me on my first real-life road trip. We packed up with his high school best friend and drove 16 hours to Philadelphia, Pennslyvania. We protested during the DNC. When we came home we made even more memories. We saw Leon Bridges in concert and had our first caricature drawn.

Our anniversary is in the winter and the winter in KC is awful. Therefore, we take our photos in the summer. Our first year, Britt Crowe took our photos in the River Market. I fell in love with this photo of the way Ean looks at me. It’s my favorite photo of us ever.

Year 2.5 came with a new adventure and more photos.

This time we drove to Colorado to photograph the most beautiful wedding. I thought he would propose there. Later he would tell me he never even considered it. If that doesn’t sum up our relationship, I don’t know what will. This time, Dan Hand photographed us. It was a blast.

We hiked, and I almost died because I did my best, but my best wasn’t great. We spent the year seeing new things and I got the best anniversary present I could ever imagine. He bought 3rd row tickets to see Criss Angel. One thing you’ll learn through this series is that magic is my first love. I have never felt so seen.

In November, I came home from a wedding in St. Louis. He was dressed as Don Quixote, a character from my favorite Spanish novel. He purchased an Opal engagement ring that only fit my pinky because he did not know that rings had sizes. It was perfectly us. We started to plan immediately.

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Year 3 was full of wedding planning and loss

We went into ultra spending mode – which you can read more about in my post about our wedding vendors and budget. This got even more hard when we learned that my first dog, Belinda the Beagle, was getting more and more sick. She was only supposed to be 7 and we thought we had more time. Unfortunately, we did not.

We canceled our grand plans of a mountain elopement and instead had photos taken in our home/neighborhood with her. She was put to sleep about a month later. We cannot thank Kelsey enough for fitting us in for this.

We powered through and made new memories. A new fluff entered our lives just as Linda passed and we saw it as a sign. He acts a lot like her.

I lost several more family & estranged friends and before I knew it, I was grieving by planning and finding the best deals I could. It helped take my mind off of things.

August 16, 2019 we got married. Planning a wedding was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I did so much of it alone and stressed out constantly. We’re hearing from all our friends, unprompted, how great it was.

It’s the best reward we’ve gotten. If you’re ready to dive into all of those images, click here. See you soon, Space Cowboy.