Despite having countless mutual friends, Ally and Jason did not meet until their senior year at Gustavus Adolphus College. Happenstance after happenstance led Ally to an introductory meeting for Gustie Buddies, a student organization that facilitates group mentorships between Gustavus students and youth with physical or developmental disabilities in the St. Peter community. A mutual friend, Anna St. Dennis (one of Ally's personal attendants, now Anna Herd), was the Gustie Buddies coordinator responsible for assigning the mentorship groupings. Because Ally had not signed up in advance, she was the last GAC student waiting to be assigned a group. Though Anna might claim to be a matchmaker, she has admitted that she placed Ally with Jason only because his other assigned partner, Elissa, would be graduating early in December. Ally's first impression? She doesn't remember much, but she recalls questioning his hairstyle choice as the group exchanged phone numbers. Still, it only took a few Gustie Buddies meetups for the sparks to begin flying. Their first date was on October 25th: Jason asked a lot of questions and claims Ally talked for most of the date. Sounds about right! Flash forward to December 1st: Jason took Ally out for a sushi dinner followed by the Kiwanis Holiday Lights in Mankato. He worked up the courage and asked, "So what do you say we make this official?" to which she playfully replied, "Hmm, I think you can do better than that." He then asked, "Do you want to make this official?" She said, "Try again!" The third time was the charm. He asked, "Will you be my girlfriend?" to which she replied, "Absolutely." Luckily, he took note and got the proposal right on the first try!

It happened on a spontaneous weekend trip to Duluth. Jason was feeling bummed out because he missed what he said was a perfect proposal moment walking along Park Point Beach; he had left the ring in the car! After lunch, they decided to check out Hawk Ridge Trail, a must-see according to their Duluth-native pals. It's a path with gorgeous, 180-degree views overlooking Duluth and Lake Superior. They paused for a moment to enjoy the beautiful scenery and were standing side by side with an arm around each other, putting Ally's head at about Jason's chest height. She noticed his heart was racing despite it being a pretty easy hike. When Jason started talking about how much he cherishes the little family they'd formed since adopting Ernie, she knew. :) He got down on one knee, and unsurprisingly, she started bawling—so much so that Jason had to remind her that she hadn't yet answered his question two minutes later. As we all now know, it was a resounding YES!