We met as college freshmen at The University of Texas at Austin in fall of 2010. Carlos was hosting his usual Jersey Shore watch party (cringe) and Arlene's friend/ Carlos's dorm neighbor invited her to join. We clicked immediately and from there our friendship blossomed. From spending our Bevo bucks on lunch with each other around campus, singing karaoke at Juicy Tart, and fun nights on 6th street, we became inseparable. After graduating in May of 2014, we moved apart (Carlos began his career as an engineer and Arlene went to El Paso for graduate school). We still remained close and visited each other whenever we could. In March 2019, Carlos invited Arlene with his friends to Las Vegas. Carlos's friends (cough*Cari and Shana*cough) were a bit apprehensive about a "random" person coming on a friend's trip - to their surprise they all loved Arlene (and quickly began asking Carlos why he wasn't dating her yet). And then... COVID happened. Arlene got a job offer in California and Carlos didn't want her to leave Texas - and the next phase of our relationship began. We would talk for hours on Duo, have virtual dinner dates, and we talked about how excited we were to see each other once we were vaccinated. Finally, on March 13, 2021, we became a couple. After not seeing each other for two years, Arlene visited Carlos in Austin for his 28th birthday. We soon began planning many trips to meet up with each other - San Francisco and Yosemite in April, Minnesota in June, Carlos's hometown in Puerto Rico in July, Arlene's hometown in Dallas in September, Los Angeles in November and Playa del Carmen for Arlene's 30th birthday in January (we love to travel). But this wasn't enough. We were not satisfied with seeing each other every few months, so a plan was made to be together. In March 2022, Carlos flew to California and with the help of Arlene's mom, helped pack up her apartment and began a three-day road trip to move Arlene to Austin for good. To celebrate our first anniversary as a couple in March of 2022, we took a trip to Paris and Madrid. On our return, we celebrated Carlos's 29th birthday with his family and friends and the engagement pressure from our friends and family began- but Carlos had another plan. In November 2022 we took a trip to Japan. On November 10, 2022, in front of the Tokyo Tower (and with some help from Arlene's friends Myranda and Andre and photographer, Shinji), Carlos popped the question. Arlene said YES! We surprised everyone with the happy news when we returned from our trip. And now our journey to forever begins... We are so happy to have you all in our lives and to celebrate this very special day with us.