Wedding Part II

We officially became Mr. and Mrs. on January 23rd, 2021. We had an intimate ceremony with a few close friends (in person) and our immediate families (over video) as our witnesses. Our hearts were, and still are, filled with joy and gratitude for being able to marry on that day, but now we are beyond excited to finally celebrate our marriage with a vow renewal and reception!

For those who don't already know, we met each other through the magic of the internet. Clara was living and working in St. Cloud after living in London and Beijing for a few years, while Ryan had just wrapped up his MBA and was enjoying his last few weeks of funemployment. For the 4th of July, Clara decided to celebrate her coincident birthday by coming down to civilization and seeing some friends. With a few hours to kill before our respective plans, we met up at the Minneapolis Club to play pool and drink cheap rose. Apparently we both liked each other enough to do it again. As a result of Ryan's devastatingly good charm, Clara started making the trip to civilization more often (and once she convinced him MN also includes areas outside of MSP, he went up to St.Cloud too). Eventually, we decided that it made sense to start cohabiting in Minneapolis and began the search for something larger than Ryan's condo. Clara managed to trick Ryan into abandoning condo life and its lack of shoveling or yard work in favor of having a large grill and not having to share walls with people. Several home improvement projects and a couple of years later, we've managed to create a pretty livable home, go on some fun adventures, pick up a pretty cute and only moderately irritating dog, and make some great friends.

In the fall of 2018, Ryan decided that it was about time to start planning a proposal. Having vaguely figured out Clara's ring preferences, he contacted his favorite (only) jeweler friend and began the process of selecting rings and rocks. Once the ring had been ordered, Ryan had to decide on the right time to propose. After consulting with people knowledgeable on the subject (his sisters), Ryan decided that he needed to knock this out before the holidays. For the location, it seemed obvious to go back to Clara's favorite restaurant: Demi. To help plan, Ryan enlisted Jeff (groomsman) and, unknowingly, his wife Elise (best woman). Ryan and Jeff thought about bringing Elise in on the planning, but abandoned that idea when they realized that Clara and Elise were largely incapable of keeping secrets, or at least their excitement. As a result, half of us were appropriately surprised by the proposal, despite Ryan suggesting to Clara that she should go get a manicure. As it turns out, this was Demi's first proposal, so they were also pretty excited. We arrived at the restaurant early for some privacy, with Ryan basically planning to wing it once we got there. Earlier that evening he realized that the ring box definitely didn't fit into his pants pocket and he would have to ask Clara right away. In short, the ring came out, she said yes, and the bartender was ready with the champagne. The dinner ended up being excellent; the company was pretty great too.