Aaron and I first met while working at The Order in Springfield, MO. While we were both working there, we were really just acquaintances. However, we developed several overlapping friends while working in the industry over the next few years. In 2020 I ended up getting COVID and became way too active on social media while unable to leave my apartment. That was the point at which Aaron messaged me in response to an Instagram story where I posted about reading Harry Potter during my quarantine. We started chatting back and forth, and after a few days of getting to know one another, we scheduled our first date to celebrate my quarantine release. After our first date wasn’t too incredibly awkward, we scheduled another, and then another… And as they say, the rest is history. Here we are only three years later with new careers, a new place to call home, and housing way too many cats in one apartment.

Every December, Aaron and I go on a drive to look at Christmas lights. This past year, we scheduled our annual Christmas light outing, but Aaron wanted to go see a light show happening on the side of the Marriott building downtown to start the night off. He suggested we go to the Power & Light building where his brother was living at the time to get the best view. Andrew let us up to the rooftop of the building while he went down to get his coat. But when we got there, the building that was supposed to have a Christmas light show just said “Go Chiefs.” I turned to Aaron to ask if maybe the show wasn’t going on since it was a Sunday. Instead he told me that he made up the light show and wanted me to have a view of the city where we’ve built our lives together when he asked me to marry him. Of course I said yes and we celebrated with champagne before calling our friends and family with the news!