It's said that 'when you know, you know', and that was certainly true for a loved-up couple who got engaged after meeting just twice.
Sarah Dorough, 21, and Luke Bond, 22, live 9,000 miles from each other, but they still decided to take the plunge and get engaged in December last year.
With Sarah living in Virginia in the US, and Luke in New Zealand, their relationship blossomed on FaceTime after meeting on Instagram for the first time in December 2021 after bonding over their love of fitness.
Speaking about that time, Sarah said: "We would talk around two times every day and talk for a long time and making it work with the time zones is hard to."
She added: "We were already invested in each other from the call, so from there that's when we were like if we are going to move forward and have a relationship we need to meet in person as we don't want to be online together."
After speaking to each other for a few months, they met for the first time in July 2022, when fitness instructor Luke flew to Virginia to meet Sarah and her family. This is when he officially asked her to be his girlfriend.
Fitness coach Sarah recalls meeting him as "a dream". She added: "An experience I haven't ever felt before, that first hug was something we had waited so long for, so you can only imagine how exciting that moment was when we ran up to each other and gave each other a hug. To this day that moment still blows my mind."
On their second meeting, when Sarah flew to Luke's home in Wellington to spend Christmas with his family, he surprised her by popping the question while on a camping trip.
"It was super exciting, this was something we had to work out - whether we do want to spend our lives together - we did figure that out because we don't want to keep travelling back and forth," said Sarah.
Despite living on different continents, the smitten pair say 'trust' is the key to their relationship, and they are committed to get married in New Zealand next year.
However, they do find it can be "hard from time to time". Sarah added: "We really struggle but we also have a few things that we do to make the long-distance better, like having proper communication, prioritising our calls and having trust in each other - we really trust each other.
"Communication is important, making sure that you really understand and talk through what you're going through because you are not there with the person a lot of times so you're going day to day about what is going on and walking each other through those steps."
Speaking further about their relationship, Sarah said: Our relationship is exciting and adventurous. It is just all-round fun, loving and caring."
Because they live so far away from each other, they find the "biggest thing is trusting each other". Sarah added: "There is always going to be little thought that can pop into each other's head.
"Luke and I never have any concerns about what the other person is doing as we have that bond and trust."
Luke is planning on coming to the US to see Sarah and her family in April.
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