09.28.24

A friend had told me that Corey was a very eligible bachelor back in August 2020. I looked him up on social media and thought he was super cute. I added him on Facebook and Instagram. We went back and forth liking each other's posts, but nothing much came of it. Then, she added Corey on Snapchat in June 2021 because nothing was progressing. Corey was slick and messaged me asking if I had sent him something because he never got it. Low and behold, he completely made that up to start talking to me lol. We talked for maybe 2 weeks. Then, as Corey loves to claim... 'I ghosted him" LOL. We started talking again mid August and I told him on Labor Day that I wanted to meet him in person. He thought I wasn't serious, but I was. I told him to meet me at Red Bones that upcoming Saturday. He met me after work and the plan was to go on a mutual friend's boat to the swimming hole on Sunday. Welp, his friend passed out, forgot to give him the door code, and wasn't picking up the phone lol. Since I knew he wasn't trying to drive all the way back to Suffolk from Moyock, I told him he could crash on the couch. We stayed up til 5:30 AM talking over drinks. We figured out all the mutual friends we had, discussed some "hot tea", and were trying to figure out how we had never met before. Fun fact, Corey was at a wedding that I photographed and had no idea his future wife was there! Between "playing hard to get", making him sleep on the couch (literally handed him a pillow and blanket and was like Good Night sir LMAO), and spending 24 hours together on day 1, we were smitten. The first day Corey met Easton, he knew what he was signing up for lol. As we all know, Easton is ALL boy, full of energy and always ready to f*** shit up. Easton was hanging with boys, acting like a monkey in the tree, and having a blast. Corey handed him some tool and Justin was encouraging him to start cutting down the crepe myrtle in his front yard. Safe to say, Easton was always excited to see Corey after that! On October 10, 2021, Corey was so funny and said, "I feel so weird asking because we're almost 30 years old and hopefully I never have to ask this again... can I call you my girlfriend?" I remember thinking "Oooo so he potentially sees us getting married one day". Now look at us lol

Corey proposed during our Puerto Rico vacation in July 2023. We were with Anna and Randy on this trip. Anna made dinner reservations at an amazing restaurant for 7:30 PM. We were all ready around 6:30 and the restaurant was less than 5 minutes away. We were talking about taking photos on the rooftop, the beach behind our Airbnb, or the restaurant. I was sitting on the couch enjoying a glass of wine and felt like everyone was in such a hurry to take pics. Not gonna lie, I was a little suspicious because I know these men don't care about pictures lmao. So, we walk to the beach and I snap photos of Anna and Randy first. Once it was our turn, I was trying to figure out which side was my "good side" lol. As I'm telling Corey to get on my good side, I start looking around for him because I'm like where the heck did he go?? I turned around and he was down on one knee. I immediately start crying as he says, "Nicole Bollinger, will you marry me?" (He didn't include my middle name because he didn't want to mess up the pronunciation of it lmao. It's my mom's maiden name, Cachola. Pronounced Cuh-Chole-Luh). Obviously, I said yes! Also, shout out to Anna for having me switch my outfit to a cuter one before the proposal. It was super windy on the beach and I'm sure half my ass would have been in the pics from my flowy skirt flying up lol. The maxi dress was definitely the move