About the bride: Melissa is a 28-year-old teacher, currently teaching the 5th grade in Nashville, Tennessee.
About the groom: Ryan is 28 years old and served in the Army for five years. He plans to start a new career as a financial adviser in May.
Time together: A year and a half
Engagement date: January 4, 2008
Why he’s the one: "From his first e-mail, he had already made me feel like the most important person in the word."
Why she’s the one: "I've never been more sure about anything in my entire life. She is everything I ever wanted and everything I didn't know I could have."
Some people believe in love at first sight, while others believe in love at first type.
Melissa and Ryan started out as pen pals. They originally met through Ryan's sister, who suggested that Melissa meet her very handsome and athletic brother. The only obstacle was that Ryan, acombat Army engineer, was deployed in Iraq.
Ryan decided to take a chance and wrote Melissa an e-mail. The first line of Ryan's e-mail said "I don't usually do this, but ..." It was a casual and sincere first line, and ever since then Melissa knew that he was different from the guys she’s liked in the past. He was something special. She wrote him from Nashville, Tennessee; he wrote from Tikrit, Iraq. They typed. They talked. They fell in love.
Two months later, Ryan met Melissa for the very first time while he was on tour. At the very first sight of him, Melissa was speechless for the 6-foot-4-inch, brown-haired, blue-eyed handsome hunk. Melissa had butterflies, and in her heart, she knew that everything had fallen into place.
Yet it was almost too good to be true.
A few short weeks later, Ryan was deployed back to Iraq for another six months. Their only means of communication was through e-mails and photographs. Melissa has kept every e-mail and has since made it into "their book," a 2,000-page book filled with words of love.
Ryan recently finished fighting in the military and will be starting a new career as a financial adviser in May. Not only are they planning a wedding, they are also planning their next move together to sunny Naples, Florida.
What started with "you've got mail" will now have an address of "home sweet home".