It was cold that night in December 2017. The winds whipped across Clark Street. A young, clean-shaven man runs across the street nervous. At least he's early. But wait! As soon as he walks in the door of the Replay Tavern he sees her, sitting at an old video arcade game repurposed into a table. She was a vision in her cardigan sweater. He was glad he swiped right. They began talking about their common interests of art, film, graphic design, and commiserated about both being graduate students. He got excited about Prince videos playing on the TV. She enjoyed the popcorn. After a couple glasses of wine, he demonstrated yoga poses. They went over to one of the many video games in the bar, and he handily destroyed her in a game of Mortal Kombat. Then one thing led to another... Yes folks, it's us. Our relationship moved quickly, but faced many twists, turns, ups, and downs. Having both been in graduate school- Bri at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for Art Therapy and Jason at Northwestern University for Media Studies- their high levels of stress and overflowing schedules led to struggles to keep our two-person ship afloat. After periods of being "on and off again" for nearly two years, we decided to be "just friends" in summer of 2019. That didn't work. We were still very much in love with one another. We both are convinced that deciding to build a relationship on friendship with no expectations of more was exactly what led us to the healthy and unconditionally loving place we find ourselves in today. We soon learned how to figure out some of this whole partnership thing and have learned so much about each other and ourselves along the way. We are so grateful to now call one another each other's best friend. We moved in together in July of 2021 and adopted our sweet little dog Henry a month later. Jason proposed marriage on Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022, with all of Bri's family there to cheer us on. We are now so excited to be getting married with a foundation built on respect, friendship, and perseverance. The values we hope to build a marriage on include Courage, Conviction, Creativity, Care, Curiosity, Community. To this effort, Bri has brought her deep knowlege of human emotion and thought and Jason an adoration of alliteration. We will be highlighting these values during our ceremony and feel so thankful to have our ( ^ community) present to lift us up and support us as we kick off our marriage. Thank you for being here. Love, Bri & Jason