Almost exactly 10 years ago, in August of 2014, we met at the Antiochian Village. We grew up attending the Village as kids, and then worked there together over the course of the summer in 2018. Over time, we continued to cross paths at AV, Camp Catanese, and trips with friends around the country, and we began to realize how much love we had for one another. A beautiful friendship turned into so much more and we couldn't be more grateful for the people and community that have brought us to where we are today!

We would love to tell you all about the proposal! Or... you can watch the video of it in our wedding website gallery, captured and edited by the incredibly talented Ray Banna! Andrew’s Perspective When it came to our proposal, there were only a few things I cared about aside from asking the love of my life to marry me! I wanted it to be in a beautiful spot where we could capture it, I wanted as much of our family as possible to make the trip to the west coast, and, most importantly - I really wanted it to be a surprise. For those wondering how Nicole didn’t see it coming, especially because of the fact that she got dressed up beautifully for the occasion, I began planting seeds years ago that Nicole and I should do a nice photo shoot before I eventually moved out of Arizona. Funny enough, the week before one of her trips out to visit, our photographer friend was “looking to expand his couple’s portfolio for his website” and offered to take pictures for all of our friends and our significant others. Nicole jumped on the opportunity to take nice photos and didn’t think twice. It took a ton of planning, secret trips to Michigan to ask her parents for their blessing, massive risk in picking out a ring without Nicole’s direct input, and a ton of great friends to make it all possible, but the weekend of 4.22 arrived and it couldn’t have gone any better! Nicole can share more about how the day went, but I was so grateful to have pulled off the best surprise of our lives and have the most amazing video to relive it all. Nicole's perspective: I had just finished my first year of PA school and had a week long break so I decided to visit Andrew out in Arizona. He had casually mentioned that we needed to take time out of my trip to do a favor for our friend who was looking to expand his photo portfolio! Given that we love our friend Ray so much and we had been wanting to take some nice pictures for a while, I was ready to help in a heartbeat! That morning, Andrew was persistent about eating breakfast at this one cafe, Famé. At the time, I didn't think anything of it except that he really wanted their french toast, but looking back, it was actually because it was the place we had our very first official date! We spent that day shopping with some of our close friends since she didn't have any shoes even though they were "also doing the photoshoot" (I truly don't know how I did not suspect a thing, all of this sounds a little sketchy now that I am typing it out). We all got ready and made our way over to Papago Park. As we got out of the car, Andrew said he wanted to show me something nearby. As we approached the sidewalk, he covered my eyes, and once I could see, I stopped dead in my tracks to see that Andrew had lined the walkway with posters full of pictures of us and our adventures from every state, surrounded by flowers and candles. You would think that by now maybe I had an idea that this was a proposal, right? Nope! The first poster said "Happy 24th Birthday Nicole!" In my head this made sense because my birthday was coming up and Andrew loves going above and beyond when it comes to celebrating! I had a moment where I questioned if this could be a proposal, but quickly refuted that thought after doing a quick scan to check for any signs of a ring box in his pockets, but, to my disappointment, there wasn’t one and it seemed to be a really sweet birthday celebration after all! He walked me over to a dock overlooking the water and the mountains and read the most heartfelt letter. Andrew finally told me that this whole thing had less to do with my 24th birthday and more to do with the rest of our lives before getting down on one knee and pulling the ring box out of his sock! Sneaky sneaky! Our moms, siblings, and some of our closest friends popped out from behind trees to share the special moment with us. It was truly the most incredible and unforgettable day… for now!