Alissa and I have known each other for more than half our lives. When I was 12 years old, I moved to a neighborhood, Caliburn Manor, which happened to be the neighborhood Alissa spent her entire childhood in. When I got into high school, I quickly became friends with Courtney, Alissa's oldest sister. After high school, I ended up studying at Michigan State University along with Courtney. Courtney and I stayed close friends throughout college and eventually Alissa also attended Michigan State University her sophomore year. Alissa had started hanging out with Courtney at MSU and quickly became a part of our friend group. Alissa and I instantly became friends as she loves an incredible sense of humor and a tall and handsome man. I of course, thought she was the most beautiful girl in the world. Over the course of 2015-16 at Michigan State, Alissa and I continued to become closer. Unfortunately, I moved to Miami for graduate school and Alissa transferred to Western Michigan University. Fast forward 4 years and in 2020 I moved back to Michigan. Alissa immediately knew I was home and dinged my instagram DMs. We quickly started talking everyday again without skipping a beat. I said I love you first and Alissa eventually followed with lots of happy tears. After 5 short years of living at home in our childhood homes with our parents (5 houses down from each other on Queensbury Drive), we finally bought a house in 2025. It was quite the fixer upper but Alissa (and her father Leo) have done the most incredible job making our house a home. I have helped as much as I can but I am still in stage one of my apprenticeship. We have spent the most amazing 5 years together and its truly been the happiest time of my life. The last year creating a home together has been even more special than I could have imagined. Eventually, after nobody told me the saying "shit or get off the pot", on 12/31/25, I popped the big question. Alissa thought for about 0.3 milliseconds and lucky for me she said yes. She then said since you took so long we are getting married in 8 months. I said "whatever you want dear". And here we are. In all seriousness, I can speak for us both when I say we are so excited to get married and have so many loved ones there with us. We are so lucky to have you all in our life and can not wait to celebrate! Charlie