We're getting married!

Our love story began sophomore year of college at the University of Notre Dame. Nick had gone home to Indiana, PA for Thanksgiving. Caitlyn had gone to visit her mom’s family on the Barilla side in New Castle, PA for the holiday. They both took the same bus back to school. A mutual friend, Noreen, who Caitlyn knew from being in the same dorm, Pasquerilla West, and Nick knew from a high-stakes Phys Ed Pickleball class that semester introduced us. We bonded over laughing at Caitlyn’s first snowman (a sad 6 inches tall) and her weird comparison to walking in snow as walking on soft beach sand. In January, while Nick was still beating himself up about not asking for her number, Noreen reintroduced us after taking us to a party hosted by Nick's friends. Nick finally asked for Caitlyn’s number and their love took off from there. A few years of ND football games, SYRs (dorm dances), Fisher regattas, and a trip to Dublin helped build our relationship, and in 2016 we took it post-grad to NYC and Washington, D.C. Nick’s job in New York and Caitlyn’s job in D.C. gave us two great cities to call home and explore for those two years, and they made us Amtrak’s favorite customers. Now we’re both in NYC with Nick at work and Caitlyn in law school, and we couldn’t be happier to be on this journey together!

Nick proved himself to be a true romantic on this one. The handsome, soon-to-be fiancé coaxed Caitlyn out of the house on a freezing January afternoon to go on a walk through Central Park for a museum day at the Met and the Guggenheim. The walk across the park took them past some “nice rocks” and by a beautiful bridge where Nick dropped down on a knee, popped the question, and Caitlyn said yes! Then, Nick kept the celebration going with drinks at a hotel rooftop where he surprised her by bringing both sets of our parents to NYC to celebrate! From there, Nick swept everyone off their feet (Caitlyn especially) with dinner at their favorite Italian restaurant with their friends and family who had come in from Florida, Virginia, Detroit, Chicago, New York, Pennsylvania. It could not have been a better night, and we both are so incredibly grateful and touched that you all came out to celebrate us and this big next step in our lives! Nick’s party planning skills have revealed to everyone how qualified he is to wedding plan, and it is just because of how much we love him that he has been spared from doing this single-handedly as well. We can’t wait to celebrate with all of you in February!