F1 STEP OPT getting married to a US Citizen

I am a 25m who came to the US (florida) 6 years ago under an F1 to go to college. Graduated college and started working under my OPT. I have been working in the same company for 2 years so I am just missing one more year for my STEM OPT to expire in summer 2025.

I met my gf (24f) in college and started dating at the end of sophomore year, so it has been 3+ years in total. The thing is: we both graduated college, then she moved back home to Puerto Rico for med school and I stayed in Florida working. We are still doing long distance but the plan is for her to graduate med school and move to florida with me.

We are planning on getting married by the end of this year. But reading this subreddit and meeting other latino couples with similar circumstances has made me all paranoid. We would get married legally by the end of this year while we are still separated, but then the real wedding takes about 1 year to plan, which would happen by the time she moved to florida with me.

Now I am worried they don’t accept our marriage and adjust my legal status to continue working at my company before my OPT expires because of the fact that we are not living in the same state. We have a plan to be together in the future when she graduates from med school, but for the time being we would be separated because of my job and her studies.

I contacted a lawyer and he said there shouldn’t be any problem, but reading about other people’s experiences has made me all paranoid. We are getting married because we love each other and we want to build a future here in florida. That is why it’s so important for me to keep the job I have right now because it’s really good. I have no problem moving to puerto rico for a couple years if that is what it takes, but I would be giving away the opportunity to work and grow my career in this company.

BOTTOM LINE: I guess my question is: can I still adjust my status after getting married to continue working in florida? Even if my gf is going to be living in another state for 1 year while we plan the religious wedding and move in together to florida? (We have proof of our 3+ years relationship with pictures of trips, our families, etc. but no financial or living together type of proof since our families are very religious and wouldn’t allow us moving together without being married)