My first encounter with Sapphira was, surprisingly, on my Instagram feed. It was a lovely spring afternoon when I came across her personal ad on what was then called Herstory Personals on Instagram- a trendy personal ad page for lesbians and other queer folks. Fast forward to a couple weeks later and I was running late to the Brooklyn Museum for what would be our first date. Sapphira was waiting for me in the Beaux Arts court, and the first thing she said to me was.. "you're eighteen minutes late." I laughed and said something about taking too long picking strawberries at the Union Square farmers market, but really I was terrified that I had possibly ruined my date with someone so cute as Sapphira. Several hours later, we were lying on the grass in Prospect Park, talking about our childhoods, our fears, and telling each other stories about our friends. We ended the night with dinner at Luane's Wild Ginger and she kissed me on the train before she got off, something that left me feeling very smitten. I saw her again a week later and by the end of the summer, we were practically living together in my tiny East Village apartment. - Cecilia

We had talked about getting married a few times in the last couple of months and had even gone as far as picking out rings for each other, but I still wanted to be able to surprise Sapphira with the question. So I ordered a really beautiful cake with dried flowers on it and C+S written on it in frosting, got an assortment of floral candles, wrote her a letter, and I made a plan with my friend Savannah that on February 9th, while Sapphira was in class, we would get as many flowers as we could fit in 4 reusable grocery bags and we would fill the apartment with as many flower arrangements as possible. That afternoon, I had Sapphira meet me at the Brooklyn Museum and when we got to the Beaux Arts court, I began reading the letter I wrote her, with the ring in my pocket. She said yes, so I took her home to celebrate amidst all the flowers, with cake and prosecco.