Our story began in the most romantic of places…Tinder. James read that Emily was a Syracuse native who had gone to college out of state and then returned home just like himself, and it peaked his interest. Emily swiped right on a photo of James participating in something called the $20 challenge at a baseball game, involving lots of beer and hot dogs, which seemed like a great time. Ironically, we were both at that baseball game and missed our opportunity to meet organically just a few weeks before finding each other on the app. After sending a few messages back and forth, he asked to meet at a Thai restaurant after work later that week. Afterwards, we moved on to the Hop Spot for our first of many craft beers together before agreeing to meet up again that weekend. On our second date, we ended up playing darts, and when James still wanted to be seen in public with Emily, she knew there was something there. We spent the summer hiking, playing lots of board games, going to local festivals, and visiting local breweries. A few months later, the rest of the world shut down due to the pandemic, and we were suddenly placed in a bubble to really test our connection early on. Our weeknights were spent at home playing Fortnite, talking over a headset for hours on end. We would spend weekends at James' apartment, taking his dog Fin on lots of walks and creating new recipes together in his kitchen. By the time the world reopened, we were only at home when we were together. Even after talking about our future and goals often, Emily still had no idea what James had up his sleeve in the summer of 2023.

In May 2022, Emily went on a work trip, and James called her and said, “Promise not to be mad? I bought a tent on Amazon last night because you weren’t here to talk me out of it.” She told him that now he needed to plan their first camping trip. We didn't make it out that year, but James booked a weekend in Allegheny for June. We spent a weekend off-the-grid hiking and eating s’mores. During dinner at the lake, Emily said she’d really like to see either a sunset or a sunrise on the lake before they left. On June 19th, James woke Emily up at 5 a.m. and packed a couple chairs in the car. What he didn’t anticipate was that the sunrise would take an extra hour to appear due to the mountains directly in front of us. James had to make lots of small talk, really trying to stretch the time so Emily wouldn’t fall back asleep. When morning was getting closer, he started reminiscing about all we’ve done in our relationship and then dropped the line, “I never want to spend another night without you,” before pulling out a ring.