Like typical DC area millennials, Darin & Michelle met on a dating app (Hinge to be exact) in April 2019. Despite Darin’s awful profile pictures Michelle was hopeful so she took a chance and swiped right. Our love story began at Barcelona Wine Bar on 14th Street in D.C. one Sunday night. Darin was supposed to go to his best friend Jared’s house at 7pm to watch the new episode of Game of Thrones so that meant we only had 2 hours to drink wine and see if we could stand each other.
As we both arrived and sat down at the bar, we were pleasantly surprised to find that we had instant chemistry. So, like mature adults, we began binge drinking wine together until Midnight – cancelling GOT plans and forgetting all our inhibitions (& that we both had work early the next morning). At the stroke of 12 we realized that in the last 7 hours of our date we hadn’t yet eaten dinner. To fix this we went across the street to a bar called Cork to get pizza. However, after being seated we were told that the kitchen had just closed, so we settled for another bottle of wine.

The next day at work the wine hangover was hitting hard and the only thing Michelle could accomplish was to delete her dating profiles on Hinge and Bumble, confident knowing she wouldn’t need them again. Immediately afterwards we became inseparable and Michelle soon included Darin’s place into her many residences at the time which included her parent’s house, her Aunt Sharon’s house, and her Frederick, MD apartment. Finally, after a year of being a gypsy, Michelle put her foot down and convinced Darin to buy our dream house together. A year later after a full backyard renovation, we added a big Collie puppy named Lincoln and our family of 3 became 4 (including our kitty Francois).

On July 5th while vacationing in Cooperstown, NY with our friends, Darin proposed in front of the beautiful Otsego Lake at the Otesaga Hotel. Little did he know, Michelle had already booked the Zion Springs venue back in May to ensure she beat all the COVID brides before the best 2022 dates were taken. Michelle hoped Darin wouldn’t wait too long to propose so we would have some time to plan the wedding together. The week we got back from Cooperstown, Michelle took Darin to Zion Springs and surprised him with a Save the Date for April 30, 2022 at Zion Springs Farm and Bed & Breakfast.