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We met during college in Minnesota, in the fall of 2012, while playing in the St. Olaf Orchestra. Even though Josh plays the viola and Francesca plays the violin, we became good friends, and played in orchestra together for all four years, and got to know each other through different music events, orchestra parties, and also started to get to know each other each week as we had our private music lessons across the hallway from each other, where we chatted while waiting to go in for our lessons. During the fall of 2013, we started spending more time together and got to go to New Mexico for the first time in October of 2013 on a Southwest orchestra tour through Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico. We have fond memories of walking around the Santa Fe Plaza together, and chatting at the bus stop right outside of La Fonda (which you can see just over the ledge of La Terraza at La Fonda), while waiting to load the orchestra tour bus for the next stop. Over the next decade, we grew both individually, with each other, and in our relationship, despite being long distance for 2.5 years while Francesca studied abroad in South America, and moving to different states for graduate school. We now live in our beautiful Chicago neighborhood by Lake Michigan with our two wonderful cats, Padmé and Ahsoka.

Josh proposed on Christmas Eve, 2023, just after midnight on the Santa Fe Plaza. Francesca's family has a Christmas Eve party & open house, which is Francesca's favorite night of the whole year. Josh knew this about Francesca, and had been planning the surprise for months, knowing he wanted to plan a surprise proposal on Christmas Eve. There was a slight issue when our flight was delayed out of Chicago by 9 hours, so instead of arriving in the morning on Christmas Eve, we arrived at 10:00pm, when the Christmas Eve party was already winding down. After spending time catching up with family, Josh suggested that we go on a walk, since he knew how much Francesca loves seeing the Christmas Eve farolitos (paper bag lanterns filled with sand and candles), which line the narrow Santa Fe streets. Despite the fact that it was around 20 degrees outside, and nearing midnight, Francesca agreed to go outside. The walk down Canyon Road turned out to be especially magical, as there were no other people around, and the farolitos were still burning bright. We walked to the end of Canyon Road and Josh asked if Francesca wanted to continue the walk all the way to the Plaza, and even though it was so cold and late, we decided to go all the way to the Plaza and look at the lights. We strolled around the Plaza, and Josh started pointing out the places around the Plaza that we had memories of visiting such as the bus stop by La Fonda, the different restaurants, and places he had fond memories of from the various trips we'd taken here together. Josh then got down on one knee and proposed to Francesca (even throwing in a perfectly placed Lord of The Rings quote). After saying Yes!!, we walked around to look at the lights, listened to the sound of the Saint Francis Cathedral bells chiming, and then walked home where we woke up Francesca's mom to tell her the exciting news, and stayed up until 3am talking by the Christmas Tree. We shared the news with our families the next day in person and via FaceTime.