First off, I wanted to say thank you to all of the people that helped me put this together. I clearly couldn’t have done it without each and every one of you.

As a quick little background story on how my boyfriend and I met, it is your typical dating app love story. Although we both wish it didn’t involve dating apps haha! Back in 2017, we both matched on Tinder. After talking for a few days, we went out on our first date to a local bar. I had two friends there with me so it wasn’t really anything special. I would like to think we hit it off but looking back, I thought he was super hot, but I wasn’t all that impressed with his personality ( love you babe). He came off as your typical hockey player with a huge ego. And I wasn’t all that interested as I was trying to dodge all of that bag nonsense ya feel lol. After that night, we texted for a day or two and then it fizzled out. I am sure if you’re reading this and have used dating apps you know exactly what I am talking about lol. 

Fast forward to 2018 weirdly around the same time as the year prior, I had just recently got out of a relationship that quite honestly I didn’t want to be in to begin with. I was loving life and hanging out with my friends all of the time. I was super happy with how things were going and I really wasn’t looking for anything all that serious. As I sat in bed bored one night, I saw a girl on Instagram talking about a new dating app, Hinge. I had no idea what to expect so I figured why not download it and see what it was all about. Oddly enough, after going through a profile or two his popped up. So I swiped or whatever you do on that app to open messaging and within a few minutes he messaged me. At first, I was purely just messing around but after we got to texting, I realized he was me in a males body. After a few days, we met on a Sunday for afternoon drinks at a place called The Yard. Looking back, I have never gone on a Sunday date so that was kind of weird for me lol. But we were there for hours. And I mean like four hours. I can’t speak for him but in my opinion we hit it off. Really well. I don’t think I have ever told him, but that night I was sitting at home, and was like I am pretty sure I just met my match. But I have been on far too many dates to have high exceptions so although I left super happy, I definitely didn’t think that we would of ended up here.

After hanging out for a few months, we finally made things official on May 5, 2018. Although I like to say we basically were attached at the hips since that Sunday back in February haha! Moral of the story, I truly believe everything happens for a reason, at the exact right time. If I wasn’t at the exact place emotionally, truly happy with who I was as a person, I don’t think I would be writing this post. Now, I don’t have him locked down just yet, aka a ring JKJK but I am beyond grateful for Hinge because if it wasn’t for that app, I wouldn’t have met the love of my life.

So now that y’all have the back story, lets talk about this book. I’d like to think that I am quite the crafty/creative person and I really love buying gifts but I wanted to change things up this year. After doing some research, I came across a picture on Pinterest like all of the ones below. After brainstorming, I decided I was going to some how, some way, get someone from each state to send me one similar. To be honest, I didn’t think it was going to happen but with the help from the Lauren Elizabeth Facebook Group, some blogger friends, and the Scrubbing In Facebook Group, I was not only able to get most of the fifty states but I also had girls send me photos from all over the world. That being said, I literally just finished this book a few days ago. It took me SIX months to put together. Yes that is right, six months. So if you plan on making a book like this, start as soon as possible. I purchased the book for about $12 at Michael’s and for the photos I used my HP Sprocket that my boyfriend bought me for my birthday. I bought a bunch of film which was around $45 from Amazon. But you could always get pictures printed at Target, Walmart, or Rite Aid. So when it was all said and done, I spent around $60. I also left some space on each page to put photos of us when/if we ever traveled there. This book even has a pocket in the front, for tickets, or souvenir type things. Although hes not a girl so guys don’t really hold on to that type of stuff but it is there anyways lol. Needless to say, I am so happy with how things turned out and I think he was too!