--- HER STORY It was a Sunday morning in Florence, Italy after a couple of weeks traveling around Europe with my girl Carl that I met Kurt. I remember walking into an international church (apparently a little late as Kurt would say…) and seeing the boys that we had briefly met the night before at our study abroad orientation dinner. The congregation welcomed everyone and asked new people to introduce themselves and say where they were from. I remember the tall blonde guy with pretty eyes introducing himself as Kurt from Hawaii— which I thought was pretty cool. After church, a group of us went to get pizza together and Kurt sat next to me. We talked and had a great time with everyone but I really didn’t think anything of it… in fact, I actually thought his name was Kirk (common mistake…). Anyways, months went by of us hanging out in Florence and spending time together in our music class at school. He was so fun to be around and was just so funny. Right before we were set to leave Italy and go back home he asked me to get dinner with him. I really did not think anything of it because we were leaving but I went anyways! It wasn’t until we were all saying our goodbyes that I realized I really liked Kurt. I just didn’t want to say bye to him. And so I never really did… and now here we are!

HIS STORY It all started on Sunday, September 6th, 2015 in Florence, Italy. My friends and I were in church (on time of course) and in comes Carlie fashionably late, which I later learned was going to be a common thing. I recognized her from an event the night before, but I never really caught her name. As she walked down the church aisle to sit in the front I couldn’t stop glancing over at her. After the service was over we chatted for a little bit, officially introduced ourselves, and decided to go out for lunch. On the way to lunch, I told my friends Dave and Garrett, “Dibs on sitting next to that girl”. Shortly after, our friend groups became pretty close and we did almost everything together. Whether it was wine tasting, trips to new cities, hanging at Italian beaches, or exploring Florence, we were always together. A few weeks later, the deadline to change classes was approaching and Carlie was thinking about switching into a music class I was in. Unbiasedly, I convinced her to join our class so I would get to spend more time with her. Throughout our time in Italy, I had a huge crush on her and it finally came down to the last week and I knew it was my last chance to ask her out. Our friends were all at her place and at the end of the night, everyone had either left or gone to bed. When it was just us two left I mustered up the courage and asked “would you like to go out to dinner sometime?” to which she replied “Sure… I guess”. We went to a little place called Osteria di Santa Spirito. She had the truffle gnocchi and I had spaghetti with spicy chili oil. We enjoyed a glass of wine and after the date, I walked her back to her apartment and we said our goodnights. Little did I know that 5 1/2 years later I would marry her. #FromFlorencetoForever