It started with my mom, a little bit of persistence, and what can only be described as an extremely confident case of matchmaking. She overheard some coworkers trying to set Mitch up with someone and, upon discovering he was actually single, apparently decided that person should be me. When Mitch came to do some plumbing work at her house, she was determined to make it happen. She offered him my number, he hesitated, and then she showed him a picture of me. That was all the convincing she needed.

She came home and casually told me, “You should date my plumber.” As an electrician, I immediately replied, “Mom, that’s beneath me.” But after days of her relentlessly convincing Mitch to message me, he finally did — and naturally, his opening argument was that plumbers were better than electricians. I knew right then that I had to fight him.

Looking back now, it feels almost impossible that something so important began so casually. We didn’t know that night that we were meeting the person we would build a life with. We didn’t know that a persistent mom, a plumber, and an electrician would somehow lead us here. We didn’t know that all the little moments that followed — the ordinary days, the ridiculous ones, the hard ones, and all the moments in between — would become the memories we would treasure most.

We just knew that we liked being together, and somehow, little by little, “I like you” became “I love you,” and “I love you” became “I can’t imagine my life without you.” And now, just over a year after my mom decided to call dibs on Mitch for me, we’re standing here choosing each other for the rest of our lives. Turns out, Mom wasn’t just introducing her daughter to her plumber. She was introducing me to the love of my life.