Cory and I met at University of Minnesota Duluth. We both worked at the dining center on campus. Cory then joined the fraternity Alpha Delta. I also was involved in Greek Life and was very close to that group. We met at a party the fraternity was throwing. I then saw him at work and assumed he just started working there. I later learned he was working there for a year- whoops! One night at a party my best friend Barb (maid of honor) went up to Cory and said I may have a crush on him. Cory asked if it was me she was referring to but she didn’t confirm or deny. It was just her returning the favor from when I introduced her to her husband Jason (Groomsman). From then on things started to progress. We were always around each other because we had many mutual friends. One weekend, me and some friends were going to a Mardi Gras pub crawl in the cities. On our way down I heard Cory may also be coming. At the time he definitely intrigued me so I was happy to hear this. We were all at the bars having a good time, and before the night was over our friend Andrew Grikstas had a talk with Cory. He told Cory “If you don’t kiss her, then I’m going to kiss her and we both don’t want that”. We then had our first kiss at The 508. It was a perfect way to end the night. From then on we were inseparable. We had our first date at Dubhlins Irish Pub in Downtown Duluth. We were sitting at the bar when Ellen (Bridesmaid) texted me. She asked if Cory and I were dating. Cory oversaw the question on my phone and said “Well I’ve just been calling you my girlfriend so we we’re gonna go with that”. I was so excited! Over the last 6 years we have road tripped coast to coast, said I love you more times than we can count, shared countless first time experiences, and most importantly, are laughing together.

I knew Christie was ready to get married in April 2019 when she started sending me pictures of tux's and saying things like, "I want this at our wedding." There were 3 things that she absolutely wanted when it came to the proposal. I had to ask her dad, it had to be a surprise, and there had to be a picture of the moment. I planned it all out for the weekend of 6/29, which was the same weekend as Nic's (Best Man) birthday. I planned a camping trip up to my parent's land for a birthday party, but secretly my plan was to have Nic take the picture of the proposal. By this point I had already asked Ron (Christie's dad) and it looked like everything was coming together. That's when Nic's work schedule changed and he could no longer make the trip. Strike 1. Luckily for me I had multiple back up plans in place. I had been talking with Eric (Groomsman) and a couple other friends about doing a four wheeler ride that Saturday. When that day came it was really hot and Eric decided to not come with. Christie and I spent the majority of the day four wheeling. It was perfect, just the two of us. But that was strike 2 on photographers. As the sun began to set I knew that we needed to get over to my Grandpa's cabin. I wanted to ask her at sunset on the dock. My Mom had given me my Grandpa's cabin neighbor's phone number as she knew they would be out on the lake that day. When we got to the cabin I gave them a call and they said "When you see your Grandpa's boat, propose." Easy enough right? The problem was there were 6 pontoon boats near us and they all were identical. Strike 3. So now I was panicking because the sun was setting and come hell or high water I was going to ask this girl to marry me. That's when Christie pulled out her phone and set a timer up on her camera to take a picture of us. WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT? The first test picture went off. Christie reset the phone for the "real picture." 5... 4... 3... I got down on my knee... 2... 1... She said yes!