I first saw Steve by the pool at my friends apartment complex on a lazy August afternoon. Fit and tan, he was hanging out with his pack of equally gorgeous friends. We officially met the following week on another sunny afternoon by the pool. I watched him dive into the water and as he emerged, he flashed a huge smile and I was overcome by how handsome he was.

I knew I had to talk to him and, despite how nervous I was, I managed to muster up the courage to walk over to him and offer him a beer. He gladly accepted and we introduced ourselves. That was 15 years ago, and weve spent every single day since then together.

During the days that directly followed our chance meeting, our lives seemed a lot like a dating montage in a romantic comedy. We talked and laughed for hours. We walked our neighborhood holding hands. We rode the Hollywood and Mulholland hills on his Vespa. We saw a burlesque show at the House of Blues and went on a Hollywood Forever Cemetery tour. And we went to a ton of social gatherings and dinners with my friends and his friends and they all said they thought we were a perfect match. We couldnt get enough of one another. We were literally inseparable; it was as if we were trying to catch up on all the time we had spent apart before that fateful Sunday afternoon.

Needless to say, we fell in love almost immediately. After a string of failed relationships and crazy dates with men that were either codependent or emotionally unavailable, I had finally found my soulmate someone who was fun, loving, attentive and romantic. With Steve, everything was new and exciting, but also incredibly and strangely comfortable. So, when he proposed to me just 10 days after we met, I wasnt completely shocked it actually made sense.

We had been watching Casablanca at my apartment when Steve suddenly got down on one knee and presented me with a plastic ring. He hadnt had time to get a real engagement ring, but I couldnt have cared less. Steve was my diamond, and I said Yes! without hesitation. I was in love and didnt think twice about giving any other answer. We were constantly asking each other Where have you been all my life? and we didnt want to waste any more time.

When we told our best friends, they were amused and fairly nonchalant about it, which maybe isnt all that surprising considering we lived in Hollywood and spur-of-the-moment engagements arent exactly rare even now (Hello, Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson ). But, we werent movie stars or models I was a twenty-something aspiring musician and writer and he was mostly a writer, and we easily could have been perceived as delusional for deciding to get engaged so quickly.

However, because we were clearly made for each other and because we were so obviously in love no one thought we were crazy. Our family and friends were genuinely happy for us and they gave us their blessings to move forward with our plan to spend our lives together.

So, with no one trying to foil our wedding plans, we charged ahead. We decided to tie the knot in Las Vegas because we had coincidentally won a free two-night stay at the Hard Rock Hotel during a celebrity poker tournament. We booked the Chapel of the Bells, and two months later, on Halloween, we were married in a ceremony officiated by an Elvis impersonator in front of our closest friends.

I wore a white lace gown with embroidered flowers and pearls, which I found at a vintage store in Studio City a couple of weeks before the wedding. It fit me so well, it was like it had been custom-made for me and, miraculously, it had never been worn before. Steve looked as handsome as ever in a sharp gray suit and wore dark sunglasses most of the day. I could tell he was a little nervous, but I didnt read too much into it I was nervous, too. I thought it was cute because we were just as anxious as any other normal couple on their big day, and that assured me that we had made the right choice.

Looking back, Vegas was an absolutely perfect setting for our wedding. Where else but the gambling capital of the world to make our union official? After all, we were betting big on our future. Our marriage could have continued as sweetly as our courtship had, or it could have ended up miserably. Sure, we had spent pretty much every day together up until that moment, but was that enough? Could we confidently say that we knew each other on the incredibly deep level it takes to combine two separate lives into one?

We certainly thought we did. As clich as it might sound, it really felt like we were under some kind of spell our minds were foggy and our hearts ruled over reason, but thats what being in love is all about, isnt it?