We're getting married!

It was the first week of our freshman year at Springfield College. Hannah, my brand new roommate who quickly turned BFF, and I were already moved into our very colorful and un-color-coordinated room in the basement stairwell of Reed Hall. She had moved in early for her volleyball preseason and I had just finished up Precamp, an orientation program. Classes hadn’t even begun yet. Orientation was in full swing and people were constantly mulling around the dorms trying to meet people who would hopefully turn into friends. Hannah and I were sitting in our room having a grand old time just the two of us, which is an accurate depiction of the majority of our freshman year, when a group of rather tall boys walked by our door. Hannah, who was, nor is shy called out and asked if they played volleyball. They said yes and this sparked the start of our friendship. When they left I remember saying to Hannah, “That Tucker kid is kinda cute, you should date him.” :) I recently asked Tucker what he remembers about that encounter. All he said was that he thought we were cool and that our room in the basement stairwell was a “bad room.” Clearly not love at first sight for either of us... We became good friends with this group of volleyball boys throughout the year. The basement was where the ping pong table lived, along with the laundry room, so we got visits from them often. Somewhere along the line I started catching feelings for Tucker. Although I thought we’d make a good couple, I was hesitant because I knew this friend-group of ours could become awkward if things didn't work out. So, I decided to not let him know how I felt and he got confused enough that he had to ask Hannah if I liked him (hahaha that still cracks me up). The take-away here is that everyone should find Hannah at our wedding and THANK HER not only for being the reason I met Tucker, but also for helping us awkward freshman admit we even liked each other to begin with.

Late freshman year we slowly started transitioning from being 'just friends' to 'more than friends.' I met Tucker’s family at the National Volleyball Championship in April and Cameron tells the story that she knew right away I was not just a friend. We finally decided we’d officially start dating early October of our sophomore year. The annual gymnastics Homeshow was the following weekend, which forced Tucker to quickly meet my parents and half of my extended family and introduce himself as my BOYFRIEND. Woot woot.

Lots has happened… graduating college; a last minute decision to spend a summer in California together with Tucker’s grandparents; 2 years of long distance through grad school; surviving PT residency thanks to Tucker cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping and everything in between; 2 awesome years in our West Hartford apartment and then buying our first home together in Manchester; my dad teaching Tucker to ski and now somehow he’s better than me (*cue eye roll); family vacations; a beautiful proposal at Gillette Castle where I was very very hangry but ended up being very very happy. It’ll be 9 years of dating at our wedding, and 10 years of friendship. We think we’re ready to give marriage a try :)