We're getting married!

Our story starts something like 16 years ago. No one really knows for sure when or where we met for the first time. We started to run into each other at "social gatherings" more and more by the summer of 2008. The first picture evidence of us together (taken on a digital camera, of course) is from WE Fest 2008. And then there was WE Fest 2009... and WE Fest 2010. We kept in touch throughout our college years by talking on the phone frequently (mostly on weekends after getting home from parties or the bars) and meeting up during the summers while home visiting family and friends. We probably would have spent more time together, but with Tony going to school in South Dakota and Carly off at college in Wisconsin, distance was a factor, and we eventually grew apart.

After college, Tony found his way back to Minnesota, living in Sleepy Eye and working as the farrowing department lead at a pig farm. About 3 years later, he was promoted to assistant manager of that same barn and in 2019 he moved to a new barn to take over as the manager. Carly headed "out west" to Phoenix, Arizona, continuing her work as a nursing assistant at the Phoenix Children's Hospital and the Mayo Clinic. Eventually she went back to school at ASU and got her degree in nursing. She became an RN on the cardiac unit in 2016. Along the way, Tony bought a house and got a dog (Josie!). Carly moved to Scottsdale in March 2020 days before the coronavirus hit.

Both of us were living alone during the COVID pandemic and one of us sent the other that first Snapchat message. The messages became more and more frequent, and on August 8, 2020, at long last, we Facetimed. We talked effortlessly for over 2 hours. About 2 weeks later, Carly flew from AZ to MN, and Tony & Carly met up again for the first time since 2016. Carly was still living in Arizona, but when the opportunity to temporarily work at Mayo Clinic in Eau Claire came up, she jumped at the idea of being in the Midwest again. Maybe just for a change in scenery, maybe to be just a little closer to Tony. We continued spending time together and feelings kept on growing. By February 2021, Carly asked Tony "What are we doing here?" and just like that, things became official. Romantic, right?

That summer, Carly moved across the country to Minneapolis and started a new job working for the University of Minnesota. Together Tony and Carly planned vacations, tried new foods (oysters in Savannah!), and spent time with one another's families. Time moved along, and ultimately Tony knew he wanted to make memories with Carly for the rest of his life. He worked up the courage, and on Christmas Eve 2023, he got down on one knee and asked her to spend the rest of her life with him. Obviously, the answer was yes. A Chinese proverb says, "An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle but will never break." And now, as we said on "Save the Dates", IT'S PARTY TIME!