We plan to keep this website (or something similar) live. We bought the rights to the URL (www.DanandChristine.com) for a year so we plan to use it until we can't use it anymore.

Christine spent the summer of 2010 as an engineering intern for Lane Construction. For weeks, co-workers kept telling her about an engineer from a different office location and insisted that the two meet. As happy hour (and beer) enthusiasts, they all met at a local brewery which just happened to sell pints for $1.50 on Wednesdays! It is their mutual friend and co-worker, Adam Wikert (now Dan's groomsman), that gets credit for playing the role of Cupid. Even with Dan’s cheesy line, “So um—do you have, like, Facebook?” Christine was somehow willing to exchange contact information which is incredibly fortunate as the two have been inseparable ever since. Most days that summer, they would meet after work, share a few Dale’s Pale Ales, and sit on Dan's balcony talking until the sun went down. Christine's summer internship ended and she returned to Blacksburg, VA to finish her last semester at Virginia Tech. During her last semester, she took a "Brewing Science and Technology" course (aka Beer 101) and shared all her class notes with Dan who had recently taken up home brewing. In December 2010, she graduated and accepted a full time job with Lane Construction—putting her back in Northern Virginia close to family and of course, Dan.

Over the years, many of Christine and Dan’s adventures have focused on being in nature—whether it be hiking, camping, or just sightseeing—they love the outdoors. So Dan thought it only fitting to propose in a National Park while on a short hike. Secret plans were made for Sunday, March 5th which was conveniently forecasted to be unseasonably warm. The only problem was that the forecast was completely inaccurate as winter decided to hold its grip and it stayed cold… really cold. The true significance of the day was yet unknown to Christine, so she pleaded to postpone the plans for a warmer day. But with a little encouragement, Dan was able to persuade her. Decked out in full winter gear, the two hiked to a beautiful vista overlooking the valley just north of Luray. It is there that Dan began to covertly setup multiple GoPros while Christine was occupied taking pictures of her own. Dan also setup a tripod for Christine’s camera so the two could pose for a photo—only instead of pressing the shutter, he hit video record and then dropped down on one knee. Exaggerated by the cold, Dan’s teeth chattered with nervous excitement and a once memorized speech came out as just a bunch of jumbled thoughts. However, there was no way Dan could forget the conclusion to the proposal and when he popped the question, Christine whole-heartedly said, “Yes!” They then huddled up in a blanket, opened a bottle of semi-frozen champagne and realized that it was, in fact, so cold that the camera on the tripod had shut down. Fortunately, the GoPros survived the cold temperatures and remained on to capture the moment!