We're getting married!

We went to high school together in Washington, IL. We were both in marching band and even dated for a brief while (lol). We broke up and went our separate ways, until we connected again in college once we realized we'd both be attending Northern Illinois University. We felt like we had met for the first time and just clicked. We shared the same friend group for a couple years but eventually started dating our third year at NIU. From then on, we adopted Odie, moved into our first apartment, and started planning our future :)

We were living in our 2-bedroom apartment in Dekalb when we both graduated from NIU. Megan started working as a middle school Social Studies teacher in Sugar Grove, IL, while Ben decided to stick around for grad school at NIU. Odie was unemployed (and still is). Long story short, Ben was tired of grad school, but persevered and was accepted into the Pathways program-- an internship with the National Weather Service!! This has always been Ben's dream job, so it was surreal to be offered the spot at the Marquette NWS office.

For the internship, Ben needed to relocate to Marquette, MI (in the Upper Peninsula) for the summer of 2023. We wanted to go together, with Odie, if possible. We found the cutest little summer rental in downtown Marquette and temporarily moved up there for the summer. Megan had to go back to IL to start teaching again, but Ben came back down shortly after to finish grad school. We fell in love with the place and looked forward to the day we could move there for more than a summer.

Ben moved back up to Marquette solo in December 2023 while Megan stayed in IL to finish the school year (but with plenty of 6-hour drives to visit). One of those visits-- February 17th, 2024-- was when Ben proposed at the outlook on Presque Isle. Once June hit, we packed up the Dekalb apartment and moved up (with the help and support of our families, of course) in one day. Ben started his full-time position at the NWS office! Megan accepted a job as a Social Studies/Science teacher, but the school was an hour away and was not the best situation. Megan resigned from her position and is now an Academic Support Tutor at the middle school. We are SO excited to get married and celebrate at the reception!

We will have a private ceremony in Marquette a couple weeks prior to the reception, but 8+ hour drives is a lot to ask of our extended families and friends, so we wanted to celebrate with everyone in a traditional reception in IL. So, we will actually be married by the time we hit October 18th! Crazy talk!