It all started with youth group at Calvary. I (Olivia) knew who Erik was, well sort of. We didn't really interact with each other much, but we both knew of each other's existence. According to Erik, he remembered me from youth group and also remembered me opening a door for him while I was a greeter on our Guest Services team. Erik and I are a few years apart, so there were not many times, if ever, where we were in the same group or anything, so we didn't interact much.

Erik went off the Air Force, and I saw him once in a blue moon when he was home and at church on a Sunday. It wasn't until May that I saw him again, and when I did, I knew I would marry him. Life went on, and I saw him maybe one other time. Then September rolled around, and I figured I should probably talk to him if I was going to marry him. So, I decided that following him on Instagram would be a good first step. So I did, and then I figured I should send him a message.

Here's what I said: Hi. So I really don't know you, all I know is that you go to Calvary and I've definitely seen you around a few times. I'll just shoot straight here, think you're cute. But anyways besides the point…hello nice to officially meet you, I'm Olivia.

I then threw my phone across the room and went to sleep. I woke up to a message back from Erik that said: Hey Olivia, it's nice to meet you. I've definitely seen you around at Calvary, very cool to hear something like this from you. Just a heads up I'm in the Airforce so right now I'm actually stationed in Maryland, I do go home pretty regularly but right now I'm kind of far away.

My reply was that Maryland wasn't thatttttt far and then the conversation started flowing. We talked on Instagram, then moved right over to texting, then somehow, I got him on a phone call, then Facetime, and then sent him ice cream, mashed potatoes, and smoothies after he had his wisdom teeth removed.

Then he visited in October, and we went on a few dates.

This was right before the first hurricane, Helene. I was planning on going to New York to see my new baby cousin and decided to move my flights around before the hurricane, good thing because the airport shut down the day after I left. Well I conveniently moved my flight to the same one that Erik was taking back to Maryland, my connection was at DCA, we were gonna part ways there. Then our flight was delayed to DCA, so I missed my connection; no worries, Erik drove me the four and a half hours to New York and was going to go to work the next morning.

We then saw each other a lot. As much as we could. I met a lot of family around Thanksgiving; I took him to Disney for his birthday, we went to a friend's wedding, spent the weekend in Nashville with his family, and then decided to drive back to Florida with him so that I could spend as much possible time with him. We had Christmas Eve festivities and then Erik came to New York and hung out with my family and I went back to Maryland for New Years Eve.

The rest is really history, we got engaged on February 13th, in the same place we hung out for the first time and it was so special and sweet, best birthday present for my mom! Erik served at Collide weekend with me, and then the wedding planning began! Now, here we are!

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