Kevin & Marissa

LOVE. ALWAYS. WINS.

Love wins every day. In the little ways and in the big ways. It is what lifts us up in the darkest of times, and is what enhances the happiest of times. And guess what? Love ESPECIALLY wins amidst a pandemic.

Getting to know Marissa and Kevin over the past 6 months has been one of the sweetest blessings, not only because of how wonderful they are as people, but because their love story truly proves that love wins. When you live in a place of fear there is no room for freedom, and unfortunately, I think a lot of us are feeling this way right now. We feel trapped by the uncertainty of tomorrow, the helplessness of wanting our loved ones to stay safe and healthy, and extreme loss in many different areas of our lives. Now, I don’t want to down play the suffering that many of us are facing as it can be very difficult to deal with, and at times even scary. However, I do want to let you in on a little secret. When we choose to focus on love and make it our first priority every day, there slowly becomes less room for that fear to grow. So pick up the phone and call your loved ones. Brainstorm with them positive ways you can stay healthy and happy during this uncertain time. Talk about new hobbies you’ve been dreaming on starting up. Have a listening ear when needed, and spread positive light everywhere that you can. Smile at that person 6 feet away from you. Take time to share jokes and laugh off the anxiety. Love yourself a little extra when your cup is empty, and love others even more when it’s full. I promise if you act with love out of your heart towards someone, it is going to help. You never know who your love might impact.

Below is Marissa and Kevin’s full love story. I hope it brings some light to your day, and the confidence to choose love everyday, even amidst the fear of the unknown. <3

Kevin and I met exactly 15 months ago, on January 8, 2019.
Tinder was the name of the game. Kevin is originally from New York, but his mom lives here in Edmonton. So he decided to change his location on the app to the city because he was coming to visit his mom for a short while. 15 months ago we matched, talked all night, and the rest was history.

Later that week he arrived in Edmonton, and we had our first date shortly after that. We decided to go for pizza and a movie. We had so much fun and had such a crazy connection that no we almost missed the movie! I remember Kevin telling me that day that he never wanted to get married... and I remember thinking I was going to change his mind.

Our love has always been full of intensity and adventure. We hadn’t even known each other 2 weeks and were already having our first road trip to Calgary. We just love spending time together- laughing together and eating delicious food together! On that trip we visited my favourite hideaway, that quickly became “our spot” and went ice skating on Lake Louise. It’s safe to say we both knew then that this was a once in a lifetime love. Not even a month later, Kevin asked me to be his girlfriend and 4 months after that he got down on one knee. We were visiting my family in Peru and it just so happened to be my birthday while we were there! He arranged a surprise party with my family and created a very sweet game to play. Little did I know the prize at the end was the gift to spend the rest of our lives together! Unfortunately after our amazing month in Peru, Kevin’s 6 months were up so he had to go back to New York for a little while... It definitely was a difficult and trying 6 months apart. But through our immense love and perseverance we were able to reunite again just in time for Christmas!

However, 2020 has been a year of hardship and loss... our plans for our wedding kept forever changing. But amidst all the darkness that is happening in the world right now, we decided to make the best decision of our lives; to just get married, we just didn’t want to wait any longer to be husband and wife!
With just 4 days to plan our wedding, we had the most perfect wedding day on March 28, surrounded by the ones we love, one way or another. It was truly a dream come true!