My Favourite Love Story

Last week my husband Ryan and I celebrated our ten year anniversary, so I thought now would be the perfect time to share our decade spanning love story! We started dating in our final year of high school, and I count myself so lucky to have found my perfect person when I was so young. Ryan and I had gone to school together for years and had quite a few mutual friends, but we only became friends when we had grade 12 English class together and we bonded over how much we disliked some of the readings our teacher had chosen. We began to flirt in the awkward way of teenagers, and after some not at all subtle hints from me, Ryan asked me out. He’s been the perfect partner since day one, even as poor high school students he would grab my favourite take-out from Sonny’s in Brampton. Our first Valentine’s day remains one of my happiest memories, because he unearthed his mom’s old VHS player and all his family’s old Disney videos and watched my two of my favourite childhood movies with me. (The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, for those wondering). We kept that tradition going for years afterwards! It makes me laugh looking at photos from back then, because we thought we had love all figured out but we were just kids!

After high school we both went on to college and university. In college I studied Travel Industry Services and Tourism Management, and the biggest thing I gained from that program was a huge travel bucket list. In 2016 Ryan and I took our first international trip to Europe. Travel was always something that I wanted to do, and I was so glad to see that Ryan enjoyed his experience just as much as I did! Over the course of five weeks we traveled to 17 countries, and made incredible friends along the way (one of whom was a bridesmaid in our wedding!) Some of our favourite memories include trying sangria while watching flamenco in Barcelona, touring the spectacular churches of Italy including the Vatican, eating all the gyros in Greece, and learning so much at the many beautiful museums in Austria!

Throughout the course of our relationship, Ryan and I have travelled to 28 countries, most of the time when we were students on summer break. In 2018 we travelled through South America and in 2019 we also travelled through Asia. On each trip we’ve crossed a world wonder off our bucket list, and Ryan helps me collect rocks from the historical locations we visit. Travel has been such a special part of our relationship that Ryan and I had a travel themed wedding reception!

Once we came back from our trip to Asia, Ryan and I were finally able to move in together! We were so lucky to find a house so close to our families, and we had so much fun decorating our first home. Choosing paint colours, finding the right place to display our travel knick knacks, and even scouring marketplace for nice furniture was so exciting. It felt like such a special time for us, and I’ll always be grateful for the memories we make in our first home. A year after moving in we adopted our first dog, Murphy. He had been found as a stray up North and we jumped at the opportunity to foster such a sweet little guy. Since we adopted him he has brought so much joy into our lives, he’s such a happy and cuddly boy who makes us both so happy.

That was also the year Ryan proposed, by taking me to the location of our first kiss. We had our first kiss as an engaged couple in the same spot. It was such a sweet moment, and we continued the celebration with dinner in the city and a show at Second City. It was a night filled with tears, from both laughter and joy!

Our wedding photographer did such an amazing job of capturing the joy, laughter, and incredible amounts of love we felt when we got engaged, Ryan and I loved how our pictures turned out!

On April 30th we finally got married after nine and a half years together and it was such an amazing day. We got married at the Ancaster Mill because we loved the old world romance of the venue, it reminded us of our time in Europe. Our photographer got amazing photos of us tearing up during our vows, and we had so much fun celebrating with our loved ones during the reception. Ryan was the life of the party and stayed on the dance floor all night long!

Of course for our honeymoon we had to travel somewhere we could visit another world wonder, and we had a truly wonderful time in Mexico learning about Mayan culture and trying tequila for the first time ever.

We’ve had such a wonderful first few months of marriage, and we’re so grateful to the people who have continued to help us celebrate since our perfect day.

I am so lucky to have spent ten incredible years filled with adventure, fun, and so much love with my wonderful person. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us in the decades to come, and I’ll be sure to share those stories with you!