Brooke and Sander met at their first job in Amsterdam, a tech start up called Hotelchamp. At first, Sander didn't appreciate Brooke's American sarcasm, he even thought she could be a bit rude. Over time and a few after work drinks, he got to know her more serious side and started to change his opinion of her. On a typical rainy Amsterdam day in February 2018, Sander asked Brooke to a DJ show, Petit Biscuit. Brooke loved the idea and responded "cool, should we invite anyone else from work?" She clearly didn't get the hint. Sander faked it and mentioned no one else would be interested in going, so they went just the two of them. Let's just say, they had a great time at the concert and the rest was history! Fun fact: A few years later in Italy, they would be going under one of the Faraglioni rocks near Capri (so romantic) and Petit Biscuit came on the boat radio.

With the ring in the backpack and having asked Brooke’s father for her hand, Sander and Brooke embarked on the journey to their holiday destination of Marina di Bibbona, Italy. They decided to layover in Zurich, Switzerland and Bologna, Italy to break up the drive and get to see some other destinations before reaching the Tuscan seaside. Sander’s plan for the proposal was to buy tickets for the Clock Tower in the center of Bologna and ask for Brooke’s hand on top of the tower, overlooking the historic city at sunset. Brooke is usually very on top of things, but for some reason was dragging her feet on getting the second vaccination. Two days before they left for their trip, Italy announced that everyone needed to be fully vaccinated (two weeks since your second shot) in order to enter any public places such as a museum, inside a restaurant or the tower where Sander planned to propose. Brooke had only received her second shot one week ago. Scrambling at the last moment, Sander started the search for a new venue and scenario of how to ask Brooke to marry him. Eventually, he found another location just outside of Bologna, Church of San Michele. A lovely old church with a park and beautiful view over the city. With the new plan in place, the holiday could really kick off. While traveling from Zurich to Bologna, the temperature kept climbing steadily to reach an ultimate 42ºC (107.6ºF). As they approached the city, Brooke made sure to check whether they were going straight to the hotel, but Sander had different plans and explained that there was a cool viewpoint they should check out along the route. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be any parking at the top of this hill, so they’d need to set off on a short hike. Normally this would not be a problem, but in these temperatures, it’s a different story. For Sander, it would’ve been ideal to run into somebody to ask for a photo to capture the special moment, but the only person that was at the church was an elderly man with an old Nokia 3310 phone. If you add the language barrier to the equation, asking for a picture would take too long and be a little too obvious. So, Sander continued to guide Brooke to the viewpoint. “Of course, there is another reason I took you here” he said. For Sander, having gone through the COVID pandemic with Brooke, spending every day and every moment together, working on communication while stuck in an apartment was an important experience that concluded the relationship was strong enough to withstand anything. Sander asked Brooke to marry him and thankfully, she felt the same way and said “Yes!”.