It all started Memorial Day weekend in 2022, when Shannon was in Nashville for her friend Kayla's bachelorette party. While out at some bars, Shannon and another single friend happened to be talking about online dating and dating apps and were curious to see what was out there in Tennessee. Upon opening Bumble, Connor's profile appeared and Shannon was instantly captivated by Connor's smile. She had swiped right on Connor's profile and received a notification that there was a match; Connor had swiped right on Shannon too! Thus began hours of conversation. After learning Connor was a manager of a pizza restaurant and had to go into work at 4 a.m., Shannon thought the conversation was over, but Connor was not having it! In between typical "getting to know you" conversation, Connor would keep mentioning "I should have just come out to meet you". He tried valiantly to get Shannon to meet him for ice cream at Jenni's Ice Cream down the street from his apartment, but she would tell him that she was having fun with her friends and if he wanted to meet her, then he should come to the bars. While walking from a karaoke bar in Printer's Alley to Whiskey Row on Broadway, Shannon (while feeling sassy from a little liquid courage) decided to call Connor to ask "Are you going to stop being a little bitch and come out?". Connor was never one to back down from a dare, so he got dressed and met Shannon and her friends at the bar. While there, Shannon bought him a drink (Jack and Coke!) while they danced and continued to talk, until Shannon's friends dragged her away after about a half hour to go back to their AirBNB. Shannon and Connor said a quick goodbye and thought they would never see each other again, but boy were they wrong! After leaving the bar, the two of them continue to text/Facetime for the rest of the night (or early morning) and every day since. Shannon flew back to Nashville about a week after meeting Connor to see him, and also take care of him after learning that both had gotten Covid (Sorry honey! 😅), and the rest is history!

At the end of June 2022, Shannon decided to drive down to Nashville for a few days with her dog Brody to spend more time with Connor. While there, she and Connor had their first "official" date at Nashville Zoo. After exploring various animal exhibits, they start venturing off to the Savannah exhibit where Connor quickly learned about Shannon's love for her favorite animal, the giraffes! They had a blast and even bought a soft pretzel to share (and take pictures to share with Connor's grandfather because he is also a lover of a soft pretzel!). After leaving Nashville, Connor flew up to Chicago a few days later to spend Fourth of July with Shannon and her friends. While there, Shannon took him to Brookfield Zoo for their second "official" date. There's just something about a good zoo...

Nashville Zoo For Christmas, we had planned to travel to Nashville to spend a week with Connor's side of the family. The plan was that we would spend Christmas Eve with Shannon's side of the family and their annual McInerney Christmas party that was being hosted by the Smith girls (Shannon's mom and Aunt Colleen) that year and then we had a flight scheduled to leave early on Christmas morning. The days leading up to the proposal were spent relaxing and spending quality time with family; Connor played a lot of Magic the Gathering with his brother Garrett and Garrett's girlfriend Ashleigh, while Shannon spent a lot of time doing her favorite thing--reading! The morning of the proposal, Shannon and Connor had gotten up and ready to go to the zoo. Shannon had known of the plan of spending the day at the zoo and then returning for their zoo lights, but had no idea of the real reason for going. Looking back, Shannon knew something was up since Connor had been so stressed about trying to coordinate the zoo visit with his whole family. While getting ready, Shannon had a brief thought about a possible proposal, especially when Connor went to talk in a different room with Garrett and Ashleigh with the door closed, but then decided not to think too much about it in case a proposal was not going to occur. The day was spent walking all over the zoo, looking at the various exhibits, and Garrett taking a bunch of pictures. When the zoo closed for the day before the event would start, the four of us decided to just go and sit in the car for the hour wait and wait for the rest of the family to arrive. During the wait, Connor had received a call from Shannon's dad and had gotten out of the car to "talk about something work related". In reality, Shannon's parents had driven down to Nashville to be there for the proposal and needed know what Connor's plan was. Connor had used the day trip to the zoo to plan out the perfect spot for the proposal and needed to communicate that with everyone. When the event started, everyone headed into the zoo to enjoy the lights and some hot chocolate! The zoo had prepared a set route for everyone to follow to enjoy the lights, and Shannon was set on following that route, much to the protest of Connor who wanted to go the reverse way that was significantly less crowded. (Looking back, I will laugh at the situation because I truly had zero clue what was going on). Eventually, everyone had made it where the bear exhibit was; Connor had been texting with Shannon's parents the whole time to keep them updated since they were walking significantly further behind as to remain hidden (Shannon's mom had even turned off her location on her phone so Shannon wouldn't get suspicious). While at the bear exhibit, Connor's nana decided she needed to use the restroom, so everyone was standing around waiting. It was during this time that Connor started noticing Shannon's parents and slightly panicked that she would see them, so he decided it was go time. Connor had pulled Shannon off to the side, telling her he needed to tell her something. He proceeded to just stand there in silence looking at her, which made Shannon very anxious and confused. Finally, Connor says, "You may have started to realize what is about to happen..." and everything started to click for Shannon and *cue water works*! Connor got down on one knee and asked Shannon to marry him, to which she gave an immediate "YES!". Garrett had been recording the whole thing with his camera and would later create a short video for Shannon and Connor! Shortly after, Connor's Nana Joyce wanted us to recreate the proposal so she could get some pictures. Everyone was congratulating the happy couple and Shannon made sure to make her rounds of phone calls and video calls to friends and family to let them know the happy news. The rest of the evening was spent enjoying the zoo lights, now that everyone could relax, and then enjoy a nice dinner that Connor had arranged.