I'm not sure how exactly to format this post but I wanted to make a thread talking about it and sharing pictures and the like so here I am.

So early last year me and my now wife Cleo aka Lonalan had a conversation about how we could get married last year and such and that really set me on the road to almost everything I'll talk about here. She lives in the UK so I went and got my passport we paid for a venue and such and had a appointment scheduled for a notice of marriage since that's something you have to do in the UK and I bought plane tickets for September. I also had to apply for a visitor marriage visa or whatever they called it and that was stressful I won't lie but I got it and then I just had to wait for September to go over and spend time with her. One day the Sonic Symphony announced a date for London while I was there so she agreed to go with me so I bought us tickets but more on that later. Another thing I really was set on doing last year was returning to diabetes camp as a counselor I loved my 9 years as a camper and for a place I called home 5 years was far too long without being there so I finally returned and I could tell how much people missed me and such which was wholesome, that said being in a cabin with 7 year old's was the most challenging experience of my life and early in the week I was completely overwhelmed and questioning if I even belonged but me and my co counselor talked through it and such and I think overall it turned out pretty good.

Any who September finally rolled around and after weeks of nagging and being way too worried from my grandparents it was finally time for me to travel for the first time in my life on my own. Getting through airports and such wasn't too bad I hated the JFK airport though by far my least favorite airport of the handful I've now been to. Once I landed in London I realized I had no phone service over there which was part of the reason I got service to begin with but it was fine I connected to airport wifi and got in contact with Cleo apparently the info I sent didn't have what terminal I was flying into so I had to sit outside and wait for over an hour at first I was told to try waiting in the hotel across the street and asking if that was alright so I walked over and entered and quickly realized there was no front desk on the ground floor and realized how out of my element I was, I work at a hotel but this one was so much bigger than where I work it was overwhelming so I walked back over towards the airport and waited. When Cleo and her mom pulled up while I was on call with her it was a weird experience like I saw her and knew it was her but then I'm thinking like but what If I'm wrong and it's some stranger as she had me put my bag in the trunk and then I'm not sure how many people will have experienced this but every time I've met someone online and then in person hearing their voice in person takes a bit to adjust to which is always kind of awkward but I made it at last on the way to her house we stopped and got food and took our first photo together We had a great first few days together before we did some tourist activities where I saw Big Ben, the London Aquarium, and the London Eye and took way too many pictures so here's just a couple


We also went through the London Dungeon which wasn't really my thing and then rode a tour bus around for a bit before we headed home for the day. While I was over there I got to try some new foods that I've been waiting years to try for example sausage rolls which I've heard Furret talk about for years, as well as Dominos in the UK which Allysa8th told me before was the best pizza in the world and to try it if I ever got the chance and while I don't agree on it being the best in the world I was mad how much better it tastes over their in comparison to the US version. While I was there I also got to meet her friend who goes by Bestbunny28 on vizzed which was a great time we went to a bowling/arcade place and I won a round and Bestbunny28 won a round then after we went over to the arcade part and I got to try the arcade Mario Kart which is something I've always been curious about and to be honest I didn't think it was anything special. So then we started trying to win tickets for the prizes and at one point somehow Cleo won like 700 tickets at once.
After a week the day of the Sonic Symphony finally arrived and as someone who formerly went by SonicOlmstead and one my main factors for loving the series so much being the music I hyped as could be for this.
I didn't take any pictures during the event as I just wanted to take it all in and not be messing with my phone the entire time and the first part with just the symphony was incredible I was so happy that a Sonic Heroes part was recently added as Sonic Heroes has been my favorite Sonic game for pretty much the entire time I've been a fan. The 2nd half is pretty much a rock concert so with it being the year of Shadow they played I Am All of Me, Never Turn Back, and All Hail Shadow to start the 2nd half off and I didn't know at the time but I got a preview of the final boss theme for Shadow Generations hidden in plain sight. Somewhere around this point they brought out Tomoyo Ohtani (hopefully I spelled his name right.) and he played incredible as they played almost every one of his main themes he's composed and also did Pumpkin Hill and Unknown From M.E. which Cleo was super excited for as she loves Pumpkin Hill. I won't lie I was kind of disappointed that Jun Senoue wasn't there as he's my favorite composer of all time and if I would of gone to the Sonic Symphony in Ohio I knew he wouldn't be there but hoping for him to be in London since he was in 2023 and him not being there does make me wanna go again since they didn't play many of his songs. That said the show was made for Cleo she's not the biggest Sonic fan but besides Pumpkin Hill her favorite Sonic song is Super Sonic Racing and to my shock for the first time ever they brought out the composer and singer from Sonic R and did a medley of Sonic R songs ending with of course Super Sonic Racing. At the end they had us all pose for a picture and in my desperation to think how I would find myself in a picture with this many people I threw up the O-H which got taken as I did the O if I was smart maybe I could of had Cleo do the H but oh well I won't point out where I am in the picture but I'm wearing the same coat I was in previous pictures and I'm sweating horrible so if you spot me let me know lol.
I'll never forget that night I'll admit several parts got me emotional.
Then the day of the Notice of Marriage appointment arrived and so we went and it went okay they gave us a scare at one point but they were just blind so everything was okay. The day I traveled home was a real long one for me I was up 24 hours since I can't sleep on a plane and woke up at 1 AM and didn't get to bed till 1 AM the next day and my phone never changed to the UK time zone so it was just a straight 24 hour day for me lol. It was hard going from being there in person to back to just calls on discord for a bit for me even though in 2 months I would be back.

So speaking of I realized I didn't explain how my flights worked out so I flew from Columbus to JFK to London Gatwick and then same thing way home but I had to stay at JFK for a 6 hour layover which was awful.

I'm not sure where to really throw this in but as for how Vizzed played a part in everything I can say without a doubt I would of never met Cleo without Vizzed see we didn't meet on the site per say but we met from someone we both knew on the site and neither of us get along with said user so I won't name them but I would of never met them or her without Vizzed, so it's really played a big part in my life between all the friends and stuff to now even being how I met my lovely wife so I feel the need to once again say I'm very thankful the site exists.

When I returned to London in the UK I flew from Columbus to Atlanta to London Heathrow so besides Columbus all new airports this go around for me and that was kind of daunting at points I didn't realize it till Furret said so but Atlanta is the busiest airport in the world and it showed, Heathrow was the 4th but more on that later.

Being in London this go around was more casual I didn't go out except for ring shopping really and Cleo was busy with Uni so there was no time for site seeing which was okay cause I got that done and over with the first time.

Buying rings was interesting because we didn't get to try them on beforehand we had to come back the next day to pick them up and while hers fits great mine was too loose and I lost it as soon as we got back from the wedding so I had to wear it on a necklace till I was able to get it resized.

As for the wedding itself it was amazing I really struggled trying not to get emotional but I made it through barely I can't put into words just how beautiful everything was.


So now we are starting the process for her to move over here but I'm so happy with how things turned out and such.

I already mentioned this in the sports thread I made but I got to go to the Ohio State Tennessee game at the Horseshoe with my grandpa since I didn't spend as much as I thought I would the 2nd go around in London which I spent wedding money we were gifted on after of course splitting it. We had only been to the shoe once before and it was against youngstown state and we really wanted to go to a night game in a top 10 matchup and it certainly didn't disappoint.

My grandpa is dead set on getting Cleo to an Ohio State game now and also wonders how she'll react to how crazy we get watching the Buckeyes play that said I did watch a game in London despite it starting at midnight or later but I was sorta tired and knew I couldn't be overly excited so it wasn't the real expereince lol

Man, what a story. Travelling continents, meeting people, enjoying life to its fullest... As we say in my country, healthy envy.

It's funny to hear how awkward Europe can be to people in the other side of the Atlantic. It gets even funnier when there's a language barrier, which wasn't your case but has happened to me more than once. It also somehow depreciates the overall experience because deep down you feel you can't experience it to its fullest, so I'm glad you didn't have to face this.

It's amazing that you guys met through a third person. Even if such crucial piece is now missing for reasons, the most important thing remains and that's the beauty of life. You two are one of the best examples that things just happen naturally and no matter why they happened, what matters is that they happened and they remain here.

I wish you two the best. I sincerely hope we get part 2 of this thread with Mrs Sonicolmstead saying how awkward 'Murica can be to people in this side of the Atlantic xD

Btw, if she ever reads this, her name sounded familiar (and not because it's slightly similar to our great master Laian) and I know why. I've seen her posting around a few times, but more specifically, she replied to a guide of mine I checked just the past week. No wonder why it looked familiar lol