The story begins at University of Michigan in the glorious town of Ann Arbor. Elizabeth's 20th birthday called for celebrations with soon-to-be-roommates and the party of choice that night happened to be an "Around the World" party at Delta Chi. "Around the World" referring to the different type of alcohol in each room. Sake for Japan, wine for France, tequila for Mexico... whoever planned this was apparently young, stupid and hangover-free. Each group of girls was assigned a "Tour Guide" and as soon as Patrick walked up with his check-marked smile, Elizabeth was hooked. The rest of our 2.5 years on campus were littered with not-so-chance encounters and a back-and-forth flirtation that never ended well for either of us. You see, one of us was always "tied down" and we couldn't try the whole dating thing until about 3 months before we graduated (2011); force of habit kept us from working out (for the time being). Fast forward to a football game in 2012 when Elizabeth "conveniently" stopped at a tailgate to see her good friend Alyssa, whom also met her now-husband, Rob, at that very same Around the World party. If you put two and two together, that means Rob was in Delta Chi and Elizabeth knew Patrick would be at this tailgate. Sure enough, sparks were still flying. Now the problem was Elizabeth was living in Milwaukee and Patrick had started his four year commitment in Chapel Hill. Hmm... Elizabeth's company transferred her to West Virginia and before she even moved out there, she planned a trip to visit a friend who would then be only 5 hours away in, wait for it, Chapel Hill (shout-out Lisa, you played the decoy well.) Communication between Patrick and Elizabeth picked up quite rapidly after the West Virginia relocation and he traveled to meet her in Virginia Beach for MDW 2013. The rest is pretty much a continued history of long-distance love and laughs.

I had been biding my time at a local brewery until I got a commitment from Patrick to join him out West. My good friend, Jen, scheduled me for "an off-site tasting" on a Saturday night and told me to dress nice. I didn't think this was a strange request and, in hindsight, it was very well played by she and Patrick. After spending the day with my awesome (and sometimes spastic) roommates, Kelly & Sarah, I heard from my mom that the first grandbaby Britt was about to be born. Still thinking it was a normal day but questioning why Sarah was curling her hair yet dressed in an oversized t-shirt, I hopped in Sarah's car so she could drop me off Uptown for this 'work event'. The hostess walked me to the back of the restaurant where I first spotted Lindsay (Patrick's oldest sister) and immediately knew. She was there to capture the moment and Patrick had flown in, unbeknownst to me, from Salt Lake to surprise me and 'pop the question'. The day capstoned with a celebration at my favorite brewery with our dearest friends, some of whom flew in from Chicago! Shoutout Megan & Regan and calling out Laura & TBod's 'other obligations'. Also shoutout to Taylor for driving in from Winston-Salem. Even though our parents couldn't be there, Mr. & Mrs. Killian arrived in their place. It all brings tears to my eyes. And shame... deep, deep shame that I was tricked! I consider myself the ultimate planner and they outplanned me! Some may say naive... I'll just say happy.