Before Dorjan and Lizzy met, Kona and Louie did. After Dorjan moved to Arlington because he was stationed at a new Airforce base, he met Lizzy's best friend Molly during an early morning dog park visit on their apartment's rooftop. Molly, admittedly, was not interested in making conversation before coffee but as luck would have it, Dorjan ran into Molly's now-husband, Jarrod, at the dog park that same day. Jarrod invited Dorjan over for dinner and, to Molly's surprise, the overly chatty stranger on the rooftop turned out to be their dinner guest that night, but more than that, a best friend that would lead to Lizzy meeting Dorjan a few months later.

After repeated attempts by Molly to convince Lizzy to meet her "cute new friend", Lizzy finally agreed to come to a New Year's Eve "Holidays Around the World" house party crawl where he would be. Lizzy couldn't help but laugh when a broad-shouldered Air Force sergeant walked through Molly's front door in a fluffy snowman costume. They took their first photo at a Groundhog Day-themed apartment while doing a shot ski. Turns out Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow that day, and winter was officially over for Lizzy and Dorjan!

What started as occasional texts after New Year's Eve quickly turned into long phone calls, weekend visits, and frequent trips up and down I-95 - a road Virginians collectively agree is one of life's great hardships. While Lizzy finished grad school in Richmond, Dorjan made the trip whenever he could. He never showed up empty handed, usually arriving with flowers and just enough persistence to slowly win Lizzy over. On one particularly dreary evening after a long day of studying, Dorjan waited patiently as Lizzy sat behind her laptop - something he had already grown quite accustomed to, though he was always just happy to be there. Eventually, he convinced her to escape the 12x12 space that somehow qualified as a bedroom according to Apartments.com and head across the street to a cozy Italian restaurant. Sitting at the bar (their favorite spot) the two split a bottle of wine when Dorjan finally asked Lizzy to be his girlfriend. Thankfully, the restaurant was busy that night, and nobody besides Lizzy heard Dorjan yell "She said yes! She's my girlfriend!". Persistence really is key. It only took him five tries.

Somewhere between Richmond visits and long phone calls, Dorjan decided it was time for Lizzy's introduction to Cajun culture: her first crawfish boil, hosted by one of Dorjan's friends who happened to move from Louisiana to Lizzy's hometown. Thanks to a TRULY bizarre series of coincidences, the boil ended up being hosted at the former home of Lizzy's best friend (and bridesmaid!) Ally -- a house she had spent years visiting. The realization didn't hit until they were literally pulling into the driveway. The new owners kindly offered to show her where the bathroom was before everyone realized she already knew exactly where it was. The universe moves in mysterious ways!

Needless to say, many more crawfish boils ensued.

Exciting trips were taken together!

The military brought plenty of welcome home parties and celebrations over the years...

And, of course, a few moves along the way, where anything could become furniture if you were creative enough! Lizzy and Dorjan learned to make it work wherever they landed, just as long as they were together.

As Lizzy and Dorjan's lives become more intertwined, they had the privilege of watching some of their favorite people's love stories unfold alongside their own. Looking back, it almost felt a little like foreshadowing that they walked down the aisle together in both Molly and Jarrod's wedding -- the couple that started it all -- and Chase and Lexi's wedding. Somewhere along the way, Chase and Dorjan became best friends too, proving you can't really beat gaining one of your best friends as a brother-in-law.

When Lizzy's family decided to take a trip to Grenada, Dorjan knew it would be the perfect opportunity to pop the question. What Lizzy didn't know was that nearly a year earlier, Dorjan had already hidden an engagement ring in the one place he was certain she would never look -- deep inside his massive baseball cap collection in the back of their closet. The plan almost unraveled when Lizzy suddenly decided she needed to borrow a hat for the trip and started digging through the collection for the first time ever. One mini heart attack later, Dorjan managed to intercept the search and keep the surprise safe. Unbeknownst to Lizzy, this picture would be the last photo they took before "girlfriend" officially upgraded to fiancée.

And as they say, the rest is history!