In mid-2024, I thought I was living my best life. I booked a solo suite for my cousin’s birthday cruise. I was convinced that in the six months before departure, I would manifest a boyfriend to join me. The manifestation didn’t hit my timeline, so other than family members, I ended up sailing solo. The cruise was only sort of fun, but I posted Facebook photos looking like I was having the absolute time of my life.

A few weeks later a handsome young man sent me a direct message on Facebook. No words were written—just a pretty rose emoji was sent. I immediately went down the Facebook rabbit hole of scrolling his time line. From viewing his Facebook profile and posts he seemed like a nice interesting guy so I messaged him back, “Do I know you?” He replied that he was friends with one of my cousins and had browsed my profile from his page.

After a few text messages we agreed to meet at Pappadeaux’s restaurant in Arlington. We ate good food and had a few stiff drinks while learning that we had a lot in common. We both loved working out, playing golf and traveling—and the best thing was he only lived about 15 minutes from me. After that first meeting, we became inseparable. We met each other’s family and took a vacation together.

A year and a half into the relationship we began to talk more about our future and what it would look like to be married to each other. I felt like he might pop the question on New Year’s Eve—that way I could be all dressed up and pretty for the photos. But instead, he popped the question on Christmas eve. I was wearing a casual loose-fitting dress (so I could eat all the Christmas food yummies) and my face was a little weary and worn from the hectic holiday chaos. But looking at Patrick’s handsome face as he dropped to one knee to propose, I quickly forgot about how worn out I looked and happily said “YES! I WILL marry you.”

So, I guess I did manifest my fiancé, it just didn’t happen during the timeline that I expected. But going on the cruise and taking pretty photos was exactly what aligned everything to bring the manifestation of my future husband to life.