10 • 3 • 2020

We hope you are doing well and staying safe and well during these hard times. Our prayers are with you and your loved ones! As we continue to navigate the changing conditions of COVID-19, we want to inform you that we are going forward with our wedding celebration as planned. With this in mind, we are taking a few extra steps to make it safe and fun for everyone. Face coverings will be required for those in attendance at the Wedding Mass in the church. Following the Mass, they are recommended for guests to wear both at the cocktail hour and reception dinner, unless eating or drinking. If you would like to only attend the Mass, you are welcome to do so, just mark it on your RSVP online. In addition, we will have masks and hand sanitizing stations located around the reception for all in attendance.  While we would love to celebrate with each and every one of you, we know that these unprecedented times create individual challenges beyond our control.  For those who feel uncomfortable or unsafe attending events at this time, we more than respect and truly understand that choice and invite you to celebrate with us virtually. We will live-stream the wedding mass, introductions, toasts and dances. If you stay home: Pop the champagne, turn up the music, treat yourselves to a nice dinner, and celebrate with us from afar! Send photos of your ‘receptions’ at home, we would love to see your smiles! If you have symptoms or suspect that you have been exposed to COVID-19, we kindly ask that you not attend the ceremony, cocktail hour, or reception. While our wedding is a celebration for all, the safety of our guests and their loved ones is extremely important to us. Please do your part so that we can have a safe & healthy day. We are deeply grateful for everyone’s kindness and understanding during these times. Even though our wedding day will look different than we had dreamed, we are so joyful, and very blessed with love, kindness and support. Love, Anna and Conor

Conor and Anna met when Anna was volunteering at Wheatland Farm in seventh grade. In their first conversation, Conor asked Anna what her favorite football team was (of course), her reply? "Ummm, the Packers? Maybe the Steelers?". Her answer to this is probably why they didn't date until four years later, in the end of 10th grade. Their dates consisted of movies with friends, bonfires at each others houses, because if you ask our parents, we weren't allowed to date until we graduated high school. The fun really started in college, when Conor went to NoVA and Anna went to George Mason. Conor joined her there two years later. Their dates consisted of dining hall dinners, football on the RAC fields and quick stops in at Freddys, just down the street. Their love has grown and grown since they were 15 years old, and they can't wait to kick off the next chapter in their story.

Proposing to the love of your life is all it is hyped up to be. It’s one of the greatest feelings on earth. Planning a surprise engagement during a global pandemic, however, is a different story. Trying to keep that big of a secret from your best friend who you’ve been dating for the past 6 years makes herding cats sound like an easy task. Washington, D.C. has always been a go-to date spot for Anna and me. Capitals and Wizards games to dinner dates and walks around the mall… from concerts, to museums, and musicals at the Kennedy Center, there isn’t too much in D.C. that we haven’t gotten our hands on. But our favorite spot over all that we visited nearly every DC day was the Lincoln memorial. Whether it is the view of the mall, the statue of Abraham Lincoln, or the history carved into the very steps itself, we always found ourselves walking up the steps of the monument. It was also my favorite memorial as a kid and given that my dad proposed to my mom on the same steps, to me, it was the perfect place to ask Anna. The cherry blossoms being at peak bloom provided the ideal excuse to dress up and take a walk around the national mall. With little conversations and laughs along the way, we took our usual stroll up to the top steps and took a lookout on the city, and in front of Abe Lincoln himself... I asked, and she said yes!