Welcome! We are so excited to celebrate with you!

So Celina and I have debated when exactly we met for years. In my opinion, the first time we met was at Gilman Hall at UW-Madison. My first college friend, Jayden Cline, brought me to lakeshore campus to meet some of his high school friends and there was the first time I met Celina. I was in awe the first time I met her. She was stubborn, funny, and didn't care what people thought about her and don't get me started on her gorgeous, golden hair! But Celina would beg to differ on if this was the first time we met. If I have learned anything about being in a relationship with her, she is always right :). Apparently, the first time we met was at my residence hall, Sellery, where I was a "Badger Buddy". In exchange for me moving in early (the real reason I signed up for the position...), I was in charge of helping other people on my floor move in. So during the second day of move-in, Celina came to visit Jayden and we were introduced to each other. Like everyone else, she thought I was so mature and older than everyone else (I fooled her!) on the floor despite the baby-face I was sporting. From here on, we were inseparable. We spent every weekend together, studied for chemistry and psychology, and loved getting Five Guys burgers and fries (still do!). We made a pretty special bond from day one and it's only gotten stronger ever since!

COVID really messed up my plans on this one... As a graduate student during the pandemic, we weren't allowed to fly or travel outside of the state at first. That was a bummer as I had bought some cheap flights to visit Celina and her family for the Fourth of July. About two weeks before my flight, the University eased up on their travel restrictions which allowed me to fly out to see her. This was my chance! I contacted both my family and hers to begin planning a surprise engagement. All the decorations were ready to be set up and both of our families were planning to hide out and surprise us with a little celebration after I proposed. But, Celina changed it all up! What a surprise!?! She didn't want to leave the house after I flew in. Kinda tough to surprise someone with decorations when I can't sneak her away for a half hour so our families could set up the surprise. But unfortunately I didn't have time to counteract Celina's change of plans, as one of her family member's tested positive for COVID. So those plans never happened...

...Round 2. Celina and I were able to visit each other at the end of July. So we planned a little getaway from the roommates and away from Indy and Ann Arbor. We found a room at The H Hotel in Midland, Michigan. For those of you who don't know, Dow Chemical was founded and is headquartered there. A few times, I was asked if I was from the "Dow Family" and I was like "Uh, Yeah!". Unfortunately, I didn't get us any free stuff which was a bummer. Enough digression. We planned a fun weekend full of hikes, eating at fancy restaurants, and even a trip to the Dow Gardens. Knowing that Celina doesn't like to be the center of attention, I wanted to propose in a private and intimate way so basically I wasn't going to propose during any of those activities. So with a little help from my sister, we ordered some champagne flutes and a "wedding-cake" scented candle engraved with where we met and our engagement date (a little presumptive, I know). During late night drinks at the hotel, I snuck away to the room to set it up for our surprise engagement. Finally we headed up to bed, and once we were back in the room, Celina was in awe but a little confused as the candle had our engagement date on it. "But we aren't engaged?!?" She asked. That's when I got down on one knee and told her how much I loved her and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with my best friend. And she said yes! Of course she did! Overall, Saturday July 25th could not have gone any better.