Our Story

How We Met

Our story began, as it strangely seems to do these days, on the Internet. Kari decided after she moved to Massachusetts in 2021 that she wanted to try getting back into dating. She launched profiles on Facebook Dating and Bumble, hoping to find someone who would steal her heart. Despite talking to several over the end of 2021-2022, only a few of those conversations materialized into dates.
Fast forward to early 2023, in Manchester, NH, Ryo Shaw (Emily’s Best Person), created their own Facebook Dating profile, and suggested she do the same. Emily was reluctant to since online dating is questionable at best, but after Ryo immediately got several dates, she decided to give it a try. She stumbled on Kari's profile on March 18, and despite the physical distance between them, she decided to swipe right after reading through Kari’s profile and finding someone with her own delightful shades of weirdness.
Kari was initially reluctant to match. She loved what she saw on the profile--Em's passion for cosplay, infatuation with the Legend of Zelda video game series, appreciation for anime and video games rivaling her own. The distance, though. Manchester was really far away. But... maybe not too far. She decided to make an exception to her search area and connect.
We started talking immediately, finding each others' interests and life experiences highly relatable. Kari felt like the universe was telling her something, and said as much to her friends. When we first played a game together (Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, remotely) our Pokémon were even the same level. What are the odds of that?
Kari was taken aback. There would never be anyone else like Em in her life again.
We met for the first time at Anime Boston a few weeks later. We then went to dinner at the Wagamama in Prudential Center. We very nearly ordered the same thing--the firecracker chicken, although Emily ultimately opted for the katsu curry. Another uncanny coincidence--Similar love and taste for spicy food.
Emily had gone to Anime Boston with the intent of getting a girlfriend. We hadn't made that decision yet, but ultimately, she got one.

Our Third Date

Becoming a Couple

We met for the second time in Manchester on April 29. Emily was offered a new job, and Kari wanted to celebrate the occasion with her.  We watched through the current season of The Dragon Prince, and went to the Gyro Spot for dinner after some antique-hunting. A couple days later, we simultaneously watched the finale of The Owl House on Disney+.
Emily also wanted to introduce Kari to her three fuzzy chinchillas, Sirius, Lupin, and Prince to see how they liked this new friend. Lupin, the oldest and the most skittish of the three, immediately took a liking to Kari. This was the moment where Emily thought, this might be The One. 
Our third date on May 27 took us to A Slice of Disney in Boston at the Disney Immersive Experience, a 360° show of several key Disney animated scenes and songs. After the show, we walked over to Citrus & Salt, a cozy Mexican restaurant for dinner. (For those of you clicking links, at the time they were located on Berkeley St. in the Bay Village. They relocated to their current South Boston location in early 2024. We didn't hike halfway across the city.) Over some amazing tacos and churros, we chatted about the show, how Emily’s new job was going, some of Kari's life goals.
Our ride back to the parking garage was quiet. Both of us were running through our heads over and over again whether and how to ask to make this official. We both wanted a relationship to happen, but useless lesbian is often an accurate cliché. Kari broke the silence at the traffic light before the parking garage, asking if Emily wanted to make this a regular thing. Her response was "I was about to ask you the same thing." That settled it. We were together.

Summer of Adventure

We next met to visit Emily’s parents at their 'Camp', a lake house in rural Maine on June 10. Kari fell in love with Emily’s family very quickly, particularly bonding with her mother, Mary Jo.
As the summer progressed, we explored Providence and Newport, Rhode Island (a trip Kari had already planned for herself before we met), and over Independence Day weekend, visited Emily’s family again to celebrate Emily’s birthday.
At the end of the summer, we went to Provincetown, MA at the tip of Cape Cod for a long weekend, exploring the historic art town and queer enclave, relaxing at the beach and sampling some of the local restaurants.

Camp, Roger Williams Park Zoo, Museum of Natural History and Planetarium, Providence Art Club, friends hanging out in our living room, Scenes from Provincetown

The Big E, Third Eye Blind Concert, Our Dining Room, Lickee's and Chewy's

Holidays & Cohabitation

As the fall arrived, we started to discuss the possibility of moving in together. We next saw each other On September 30 when we went to The Big E, catching the Third Eye Blind performance before spending the evening at Kari's family's summer cottage in the Worcester, MA area. In the morning, we went to Old Sturbridge Village before the trip home. We met up again on October 28 for the Witches Market in Dover, NH and had milkshakes with Emily’s sister Sarah and her niece Sylvia at Lickee's and Chewy's. Here, Sarah took what is probably the best photo of the two of us together. Kari wouldn't know it for months yet, but it was here that Emily decided she was going to propose.
We next met at Sarah's house in Maine for Thanksgiving, spending the weekend and meeting the rest of Emily family. We had a delightful New England turkey day, and in the off-time worked through the idea of Emily moving into Kari's condo. We'd both have to make some sacrifices. We agreed that we could make this work.
We finalized our plans over December, meeting once to see the new Miyazaki film The Bird and the Heron during Chanukah and spent Christmas in Maine with Emily’s family again. Emily would move in on January 20, 2024, and we would make a home together.

The Proposal

After a flurry of packing, some help from a moving company, and a rapid need to upgrade appliances, Emily and her three chinchillas ("the boys") settled into Kari's condo in Foxboro, MA through January and February 2024 with the help of her mother.
Over the course of the spring, we went to the WNDR Museum and Blu for Valentine's Day, then to PAX East (together this time) and Anime Boston again, with Kari on a quest to broaden our mutual collection of artwork.
The boys--Lupin (grey, shy), Sirius (black, arrogant) and Prince (white, energetic)--have adapted well to their new home as Kari's roommates in her home office. Kari has earned the affection of each, and we think Lupin may even like her best now. Sirius, for his part, isn't even trying to bite her anymore.
Emily planned to propose at our relationship anniversary, which was coincidentally Memorial Day for 2024. She invited Kari to go to camp for the weekend, an offer Kari readily agreed to. The setting was perfect, the weather would be great, and she could propose at sunset at the scenic lake. There was just two problems, she didn’t want to wait, and any of her family members could spill the beans at any time. 
So instead of saving it until the end of the weekend, she asked Kari if she wanted one of her anniversary gifts early. Kari said sure and sent to the living room to wait with her eyes closed. Emily carefully handed Kari a geode roughly shaped like a heart. Kari opened the sliced geode to find a beautiful purple opal ring. "Will you marry me?" Emily asked.
Kari stammered for a moment, surprised. A few moments later, though, her mind was clear. "Yes. I will."

Sirius, Prince, Lupin, Valentine's Day, PAX East, Anime Boston, Proposal

Boston Pride, Camp, Anime NYC, Disney California Adventure, Disneyland

The Counter-Proposal

The traditional concept of the man proposing to the woman is still the standard in most straight relationships, but in a queer couple, it doesn't really make sense, does it? Many LGBT+ couples choose to do two proposals, either both partners proposing to each other at the same time, or each partner selecting their own occasion to pop the question.
Over the next three months, Kari pondered the exact time, place, and manner where she would present Emily with her own engagement ring.
We went up to camp several times to visit Emily’s family, celebrate Em's birthday go to the Maine Renaissance Faire, PortCon and meet more of Emily’s friends. Kari eventually settled on when she would make her "counter-proposal" while we were in the queue to enter AnimeNYC on one of the mornings of the convention. We had been planning a vacation to California for several months now, and were going to visit Disneyland. Is there anything topping Disneyland for a proposal? No, at least not that she could think of on their calendar.
On September 7, the time for our trip finally arrived. One very early flight from Logan to LAX that felt much shorter than it was later, we checked into our hotel, then headed to Disney California Adventure on September 9 after a rest day. We both enjoyed the park and bought a ton more art than either of us had planned on. (We even had to buy another piece of luggage to get it all home!) On September 10, we went to Disneyland Park and the time for the counter-proposal arrived. Kari sheltered the ring discretely in a Baymax handbag, then, shortly after we entered the park, led Emily to Snow White's Grotto in front of the castle. She got down on one knee, retrieved the ring from the bag, held it inside a replica mask symbolizing marriage from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, and asked "Emily Martel, will you marry me?"
Emily opened the ring case to see a silver ring adorned with three sapphires and three diamonds, modeled after the Zora’s Sapphire from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. "Of course!" she said.

Engaged!

We went to The Ranch in Anaheim that night for dinner to celebrate our engagement. When our server heard of the occasion, the restaurant comped us a crème brûlée with "Congratulations!" written in chocolate on the plate!
As our trip continued, we visited the Warner Bros Studio and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, then drove up I-5 to meet up with some of Kari's college friends in the Bay Area for a few days. We loved the planetarium show at the California Academy of Sciences, learned the history of Walt Disney's life at the Walt Disney Family Museum, got a great view of the city of San Francisco from the deYoung Museum, drank tea in the tranquility of at the Japanese Tea Garden and tried some new cuisine at Burma Superstar and aziza. On our last day in California, we explored Pier 39, took a ferry cruise of the Bay around the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, then ended our evening at Ghirardelli Square. We reluctantly left early on the morning of September 15 to fly back to Logan and our everyday lives.

More Recent History

Our story is still being written. Every day, we add new memories, and we are continuing to add to this as we go leading up to our wedding on August 10, 2025.
We are excited to see you there, and hope you will be able to join us for our special day!