Get ready for the best party ever.

Our love story starts like most: romantic place, chance meeting, and a night stuck in an elevator. Okay, maybe that last part isn’t true, but the first two are. Think of some of the most romantic places in the world, Paris, New York City, Venice, alas, we forget to think about Panama City Beach, Florida. This is where we met after Haley was locked out of her hotel room and came to visit friends that were hanging out with Beau and his friends during Spring Break. We clicked from the start and that flame spread back to Purdue where Beau invited Haley to a fraternity formal a few days later. It was a combination of “like” and “intrigue” after that first date that Beau invited Haley back to a second formal, the very next night. The summer came, Haley spent it in Romania, Beau spent it in Peru. Somehow, we managed to communicate that entire summer from a world away. The type of texting commitment that only new love can bring. When we got back to Purdue and started dating within the first week, we knew this was the start of something special. Our college years went by with sushi dates, fraternity/sorority formals, and the fights that can only happen between young college couples: You know how they go: “How do you feel this morning? You got pretty drunk last night.” “No, I’m good, I didn’t even drink that much.” “Oh yeah? You’re missing a tooth.” Couples who make it through college together deserve a medal, or a holiday, or at least a hug from somebody. All jokes aside, Purdue was where we found our love, it challenged us, it tested us, and from the other side, we came out stronger together because of it. Over the years, we started to realize we are the perfect combination, having exactly what each other needs. For example, Beau’s decision making process of searching every single option, even when he knows the choice he wants to make, he will cross-reference options he doesn’t like against the one option he does like, in order to justify his decision, taking a crippling amount of time to choose a snack at a gas station. Haley, on the other hand, might as well have gut-feeling tattooed on her forehead. She can make a decision in a split second, or by the smell in the air, or some other witchcraft method of sorcery. The type of decisions that would take a person very long, like picking a house for example, somehow always seem to turn out to be right and even obvious when we look back at them. We got engaged in Central Park in NYC in the winter of 2019. To set the scene: It was a chilly, but manageable day as we wandered through the city. Beau, holding a ring in his pocket, walking 50 paces ahead of Haley, trying to find the perfect place to pop the question, asking strangers along the way if they could “take a picture for us” and the strangers ignoring him. Haley, 50 paces behind, wondering what he’s doing and why he’s acting so strange. If timing couldn’t be more perfect, a news-worthy snow squall rivaling that of the White Walkers from Game of Thrones was approaching and the window of opportunity was narrowing. Almost out of a fairytale, Beau finds a snow-brushed fountain with an old lantern in the middle. Beau hustles over to a bike-taxi driver, who speaks little to no English, to ask him to take, arguably, the most important pictures of their lives. Beau drops down on one knee to ask an awaiting Haley with a heart rate of 132 BPM (we checked after) and the “yes” that followed was electric. Closing the chapter on our engagement has made us realize how magical and completely “us” our NYC engagement was as we laughed off the disarray of an unforgettable night. Since then, we have gone through it all together, from living in multiple homes together, traveling the world with one another, and being each other’s teammates, motivators, and soulmates through all the twists and turns that life throws at us. There is nothing that compares to that feeling of finding your person, and we feel it every day.