It all began sophomore year of college at UW-Whitewater when Emily would knock on a dorm room located on the 5th floor in Wells East for her two friends to go grab lunch. These friends seemed to have changing schedules, so often they were not there. Across the hall lived two fresh faces, one of them being Alec Baeten. They decided that if they went to lunch with this random girl, who never seems to know when her friends were around, that they could chalk it up to their weekly "good deed". Weekly lunches turned into breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and weekend college parties. Along with Emily's roommate Lindsey and several of Alec's buddies on the 5th floor, they became the best college friend group that ever existed. The Fall semester passed and soon enough everyone was back to the dorms to begin the Spring semester. Alec had always mentioned to Emily that she would be perfect for one of his best friends who had been living in Florida during that first semester and was returning to UW-W for the remainder of the school year. Sure enough, in rolled Sage... and Emily hated him... Sure, Sage had a personality everyone loved. He was funny, entertaining, down for every adventure big or small, and he knew how to make everyone around him have a good time. But Emily quickly realized this guy was stealing her thunder! Ask anyone who knows them well and they will tell you that Sage and Emily have almost spot on the same personalities. Not to mention they were both only children. So you can imagine how the two would compete for who was more fun than the other. This all lasted only about 2 to 3 weeks and Emily came to her senses, realizing Alec nailed it and these two were meant for each other. It only took another 2 years for Sage to come to the same conclusion.

Senior year of college was coming to an end and a majority of the college friend group was graduating. Everyone had their houses mostly packed up to move home for the summer or into new houses and apartments with new roommates. Emily would do her college victory lap and spend a 5th year at Whitewater while Sage had a 3 day drive ahead of him back to Florida where he would remain. They said their good byes knowing they had a great friendship for the last 2 years and that they'd hope to see each other again someday. Emily burned Sage a CD for the drive with all their favorite music and gave him a letter that he wouldn't know until Indiana but it enclosed all her feelings for him. Sage stopped in Indiana to attend a Pacer's game with his best friend when he had a few minutes to read the note. He decided in that moment Emily was his girl and he couldn't do life without her. ...Don't worry, it surprised them too at how romantic they actually were :P They spent the next year in a long distance relationship across the country. Sage would send flowers and Emily would send surprise boxes filled with goodies. Come college graduation, Sage moved back to Wisconsin to live with Emily. They spent the next couple years living in Pewaukee both together and with friends. In 2018 Sage received an opportunity to work in Florida where his parents lived. So of course they picked up and went! This is where it gets good!

Sage and Emily had been living in Florida for about a year and a half at this point and had been dating for 5 and a half. Emily was of course getting antsy for the future! At this point a proposal at any moment wouldn't have surprised her except for on December 21st apparently. Sage was a guy who would definitely want to ask Emily's parents for permission to marry her and at this point they hadn't seen either set of her parents for awhile so a proposal was the last thing on her mind (Yes, he called them). Emily had always wanted to go to the Botanical Gardens in Largo, FL and what better time than when it was covered in Christmas Lights. Go figure, Emily unknowingly planned her entire proposal! When they arrived at the Botanical Gardens it started pouring out but if anyone knows Emily, they know she loves the rain so that didn't stop them (lucky for Sage and his proposal plans). They walked around the gardens and Emily even asked for Sage's jacket at one point which he said "Sure, no problem," playing it cool as usual even though he had the ring box in the pocket. Fate must have intervened and Emily decided she could tough it out. Their last area to walk through was called the Wedding Garden and it was lined with white Christmas Lights and a huge tree in the center. Emily and Sage are typically pretty bad at taking photos on their day to day activities so Emily asked a woman to take their picture. After they took a few she went to get her phone back and Sage said "Actually can you take one more". Emily, per usual, responded with "Oh, do you want to do a funny one?" That's when things got real. Sage romantically got on one knee and proposed to a soaking wet Emily plugging her nose and asking if it was a joke or if it was real life, in typical Emily fashion. Sage knows what he signed up for :P