Staci: Michael and I met on September 22, 2013. I was new to the Grand Rapids area, and hadn't really made too many friends yet. I had heard about ArtPrize, and really wanted to experience it. I had met one girl in my dorm room who mentioned that her boyfriend had some friends who were driving downtown. These friends, happened to be all of Michael's friends. I agreed to go with them and got into a car full of strangers. One of these strangers happened to be Michael. We spent the entire day downtown, however, Michael barely said one word to me. I could tell he was very shy, but I wanted to get to know him better. After a few weeks Michael eventually asked for my phone number. We started talking everyday (making Michael have to upgrade his phone contract) and I began to want to be more than friends. Of course, I didn't make anything easy on Michael. It took a few tries for Michael to get me to agree to a date, but I am glad I eventually gave in. I have fallen more in love with him each day, and am so excited to spend the rest of my life with him. Michael: I was planning on going to Art Prize with some friends. We decided to meet at an Arby's parking lot to carpool. I had no idea that anyone else was coming, but when I went to get in my friend's car, I saw the most beautiful girl! Little did I know that I would get to know her very well. I spent the weeks after that day working up the courage to talk to Staci, and I ended up spending a lot more time on GVSU's campus than I used to. We began seeing each other very often, and I was texting more than I ever had before. I would visit her between classes and drive out to campus on weekends. I really enjoyed the time we spent together and started to fall in love with Staci. After asking a couple times and getting her a fish named Bubbles, she agreed to be my girlfriend and made me the happiest I have ever been! I can't wait to start the next chapter of our lives together!

Staci: Michael proposed on October 7th, 2017. Michael and Mary (my roommate) had been scheming the night before about how to do this as a surprise. Michael planned to go to a corn maze in Kalamazoo, and propose while lost in the maze. That morning, I contemplated going. Was it worth the money? Was the weather good enough? Did we really want to drive that far? Michael pushed that we had nothing else to do, and that he really wanted to get fresh apples. Mary also added that she really wanted to go to an apple farm too. We eventually agreed to go, and left on the adventure. When we got to the farm, once again I had to make things difficult. Do we really want to spend $18 dollars to walk through corn? Luckily, Mary has gotten good at being manipulative and convinced me that since we were there we should get the full experience. We did all of the farm activities, and then proceeded into the corn maze. It was the hardest corn maze I have ever been in. We were lost for over an hour- and I was getting hungry and hot. After hitting the same dead end for the 5th time, Michael decided we needed to take a picture. Again, I argued and couldn't figure out why we needed a picture of corn. However, we posed for a picture and Michael got down on one knee. Some of the details here may be lost since I was completely in shock. I remember 3 things: 1) Michael trying to put the ring on my index finger after I said yes. 2) Michael using a "corny" pun about going through the maze of life together. 3) Realizing that my future fiance could not have picked out a more beautiful ring. After that I was no help getting us out of the maze, but Michael's nerves were gone and we found our way.