After living less than 200 yards away from each other at Notre Dame, and after several months of living 4 blocks away from each other in Washington, DC, it took the magic of Tinder to turn Brad and Monica into #Bronica. Monica knew Brad had potential because, not only was he an ND grad, he fulfilled a very important potential boyfriend criteria - he was within close enough range to bring fresh pizza. We talked on the app for a bit, and Brad carried on the proud Schroeder Man tradition of absolutely not making the first move and Monica had to ask him out. As if that wasn't inspiring enough, Brad postponed the time of their first date 3 times because he was attending dinner at a friend's place, only to find out later that we were in fact in the same apartment building just a floor away. Our first date was at Breadsoda, where Brad maybe insinuated that he traveled more than he actually did to impress Monica, and Monica definitely hyped up her interest in soccer more than she usually would for Brad. Monica and Brad fell in love over coffees and Kendrick Lamar, studying together and finding ways to spend time with each other between grad school and work. Eventually, Brad moved to Indianapolis for medical school, and we were pretty sure this was the real thing so we toughed it out, and here we are, four years later and counting.

Monica had agreed to meet with her friends to take "tourist photos" around DC, even though they've all lived here for 5 years and she thought that was strange. After realizing that she was SUPER late to meeting them, she grabbed an electric scooter and scooted her way to what would become a lifetime of happiness. Little did Monica know that Brad had been planning a surprise proposal for weeks, and was by this point exhausted of dodging questions from her about what he was doing that weekend. Brad was waiting for what felt like an eternity (electric scooters are not very fast) at the top of the Lincoln Memorial. He watched an incredibly oblivious Monica not notice him until the last minute and proposed with a bald eagle overhead, blue skies around, and the Washington Monument behind him, surrounded by family and friends. (Shout-out to Kelsey and Wayne for being photographer and videographer). She said "Of course", and in true type-A fashion, started planning their wedding later that day.

[SEE NEXT STORY FOR THE HAPPY ENDING] As people whose careers center around international efforts and medicine, we have a deep appreciation for how the COVID-19 Pandemic is impacting people. We are deeply grateful that we are young and healthy and able to modify our work situations to accommodate the situation but recognize that is not the case for every one of our loved ones. So as a result, we have decided to postpone our wedding when, hopefully, the world will be a safer place. Even though our wedding is delayed, our love and our excitement to start our lives together has not at all! In the meantime, we implore everyone to stay safe and stay at home as much as possible! We'll see you all in a few months!

HELLO HELLO! We are so pleased to share with you that with the wonders of science and medicine, the COVID vaccines prove to be safe and effective over and over. A happy side benefit of this medical miracle is that we are officially able to have our wedding as originally intended with no restrictions! The cases are dropping, the temperature is rising, and we are ready to have safe and fun wedding that, for us anyway, has become a destination wedding! We encourage everyone to become fully vaccinated prior to celebrating to ensure the maximum safety for yourself as well as for all of our loved ones. It's been almost 2 years in the making now and we're so excited to celebrate with all of you