Katie and I were acquaintances throughout early high school and had a class together. It was pretty obvious that everyone wanted to be Katie’s friend. I remember Katie and her friends yelling at my friends in the hallway obnoxiously, covering each others lockers with pictures of our principal, and putting feminine hygiene products all over people’s cars. I remember during my Senior year when Katie and I started to become close friends. We would bond over our love of rap, dressing up as farmers for free Chipotle, our hatred of school, doing half of our AP Psych homework while the other person did the other half, and our Oceanography class. It was clear that I was starting to have feelings for Katie, but ignored them because we were both going to school. I messed up. I got jealous. Then I came to my senses when it was Katie who told me that she had feelings for me after a month of ignoring each other. Thank God. We started dating on April 14th and I told her I loved her on the 8th of July at Melas Park under the fireworks. We dated long distance throughout college and I remember Nate Travers telling me my first week of college that I would be single by Thanksgiving (screw you, Nate). Katie let me go and work at camp in the summers and work with kids and was with me during times of extreme grief. Ten years later and we are still learning about each other everyday, we play Fortnite, we have a dog son, and we balance each other out. Katie is realistic, I am optimistic. Katie is a night owl, I am a morning person. Katie has a mouth of a sailor, I do not. Katie goes behind the bar, I sit at the bar. Katie does the laundry, I do the dishes. Katie is the hard ass, I am the softy. Katie likes the inside, I like the outside. Katie is late, I like to be on time. Regardless of our differences in some areas, we will always be focused on making each other happy. I didn’t think I would be able to love someone more than I love the Chicago Bulls, but it happened.

I met Drew through Caleb, Drew’s best man, in high school. Drew and I were always acquaintances and would see each other when hanging out with mutual friends, but we really got to know each other in a high school senior year bullshit elective class, Oceanography. We were seated alphabetically by last name, so I was only two or three seats behind Drew. As time went by, we realized we would be a good match for one another. At that time, senior year was almost at its end, and we decided to serve our remaining detention hours together so we would be able to attend prom as a couple. I never imagined that we would be together throughout college, graduate school, adult life, and that we would now be planning our wedding, a decade later.

Drew called Katie and invited her for drinks with their friends at a nearby bar. Drew picked her up, and started driving. Katie noticed soon that they had passed the bar he told her they were going to. She knew something was going on, so she asked repeatedly if he was going to propose to her. Drew would not reply. After all of those years, life lead them back to where it all started. Drew pulled into the parking lot of Lake Arlington, in Arlington Heights (Go Bears). Katie and Drew had their "first date" here in high school. Drew duplicated the same experience, pulling a picnic basket out of the back seat of his car. Katie was already ugly crying. He took her hand and lead her to a gazebo on the water. Drew sat her down and handed her a letter, reminiscent of all of the letters they wrote each other through their 5 years of their long distance phase of their relationship. In the letter, he formally proposed. He then got down on one knee and asked the question, to which she replied "yes". Soon after, Clark, their rescue puppy, came running to them both. Clark had the ring tied to his collar. Drew asked for Katie's left hand and made it official.