Colleen and Dan are getting married!

Initially, their friends Courtney and Alan Parkin had plans to set Colleen and Dan up. The Parkins were going to pair them up in their bridal party and see of any magic happened. Instead, Colleen and Dan were both visiting the Parkin’s new house in August 2016, a few months before the wedding. The 4 of them had a great time and quickly planned a road trip to Tybee Island, GA for the following month. At the time they met, Dan was living in NYC. To Colleen's pleasant surprise, he returned to the DC area 2 weeks after they met. Courtney, Alan and Dan ended up joining Colleen at a 90s concert in Virginia and sparks began to fly as Dan and Colleen had their first kiss to Salt 'n Pepa singing "Let's Talk About Sex." A few weeks after that was the road trip to Georgia. It was at the end of that trip that Dan invited Colleen to NYC for a weekend and the rest is really history. One short weekend visit turned into alternating weekends in DC and NYC. The stars continued to align and in June 2017 Dan accepted a promotion which required a move to the DC area. They moved in together and bought their first house together less than a year later.

They were in NYC to see all the holiday lights on 5th Ave, as this had become a tradition. Dan had planned to go to the NY Botanical Garden on Sunday as it was one of their favorite places and also where they had one of their first dates. They had some time to kill before going to see an exhibit so they walked to see all their favorite places. Along the way they were talking about Christmas shopping and the upcoming holiday. Then, when in the middle of the woods with no one else around Dan said, “I do know what you can give me for Christmas...”. Colleen, completely oblivious asked what that was as Dan pulled a small black box out of his pocket and got down on one knee and asked her to be his wife.