"My sophomore year at CCSU, my friend Christina sent me a text one evening to come to the computer lab; her friend was there and she thought we would hit it off. Turns out she was right! We exchanged phone numbers and had our first date four days later. It wasn't until our second or third date that I realized that Mike was the same person our friend Kim told me about weeks earlier!" -Alyssa

"I knew for a long while that I wanted to propose, so when I decided it was time I had an idea about what I wanted to do. I employed the help of some friends, my mom, and Pinterest (what a lifesaver) and picked out a ring that I was pretty sure Alyssa would love. I had an original date in mind but I am terrible at waiting so I decided to come up with a new plan- I picked Indigenous Peoples' Day weekend. After a series of failed proposal attempts that could only be described as a comedy of errors (cue Yakkety Sax,) I was finally able to coax Alyssa into a gazebo during a walk in the park. You know the rest of the story!" -Mike

We live in Ellington, CT and are proud parents to our two cats, Olive and Marty. We enjoy spending time together while walking around Arbor Park and the center of town, watching shows like Parks and Rec, RuPaul's Drag Race, The Great British Baking Show, and Schitt's Creek, and playing Pokemon Go, Cribbage, and other board games! We both work for Manchester Public Schools (Alyssa likes to consider us an MPS Power Couple) and Mike also runs his own multimedia production company, Ember Studios. Some of our favorite places in Connecticut include Cold Creek Tavern in Ellington, Lavender Pond Farm in Killingworth, Hartford Flavor Company in Hartford, and Ichiro Hibachi & Sushi in West Hartford.